Title: John Batman, the Founder of Victoria.
Author: James Bonwick.
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PREFACE.

The birth of great nations is always
regarded with interest. The Roman historians, unable to
penetrate, the gloom of their past and unwilling to claim a
contemptible origin, boldly allied themselves with the celestial
Olympus, and made their Romulus the son of a god. A Niebuhr has
shattered the fairy fabric of those early days, and robbed our
youth of the charming tale of wolf-nursed heroes. Yet who that
trod the palaces of the Cæsars, and wondered at the glory
of old Rome, would not throw a glance backward, and wish to know
the source of so much majesty! And here, in this Melbourne of
to-day, with its one hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, and
its noble Inter-Colonial Exhibition, as we look upon a sixty-feet
pyramid of Victorian gold, can we be otherwise than deeply
interested in the origin of our colony!

It is with a view of settling this important question, that
the present work is submitted to the Australian public. And a
very trying task has it been to write such early history. I
arrived in the colonies five years only after the first great
exodus from Tasmania to Hobson's Bay, and two years after a
settled Government of the Province here. I was personally
acquainted with several of the leaders of the Port Phillip
movement. I have made it my business for many years to converse
with primitive settlers, and search through old records, to be
correctly informed of the colonial past; and yet, with all my
care and research, I have failed to satisfy my mind upon certain
historical points. If such have been my difficulties to arrive at
the truth of events so near our own day, what dependence can be
placed in the histories of remoter times, written—it may
be—by prejudiced partizans or careless collectors of facts?
As a curious illustration of the difficulty of reconciling
evidence in the formation of history, it may be mentioned that
Wellington's mother said he was born at Dangan Castle, Westmeath,
on the first of May, while the nurse affirms he was born at
Dublin, on the sixth of March!

To several gentlemen who have kindly contributed to my
literary stores I must confess myself deeply indebted; but
especially to the Rev. R.K. Ewing, of Launceston, to the Hon.
J.H. Wedge, and to W.J. Sams, Esq.

It is now twenty-one years since the first edition of my
Australian Geography appeared; and I hope before long to bring
out, for the Australian Youth, my story of the Last of the
Tasmanians, upon which I have been occupied many years. To my
fellow-colonists I am grateful for encouragement.

JAMES BONWICK.

ST. KILDA, Victoria,January 1, 1867.

{Page 1}

JOHN BATMAN

THE FOUNDER OF VICTORIA

LIFE OF MR. JOHN BATMAN.

Twenty-five years ago I was wandering
about the sources of the River Jordan at Jericho, beyond
Jerusalem, in Van Diemen's Land, as it was then called. Stooping
to drink at the prosaic, hoof-trodden springs, I heard my guide
say, "Ah! it was bloody enough once. I shot a lot of crows about
here. I caught them camping near, and dropped them down at
night." Understanding that the crows were blacks, and
expressing my shocked feelings, the rough farmer condescended to
explain. After a sort of apology he added, "But John Batman
didn't knock them down like that, for he and they understood one
another." "What Batman do you mean?" was my inquiry. "The fellow
that made Port Phillip, to be sure", answered he. "O," said I,
"that is the new colony across the Straits." "Just so," was his
reply; "and he might have saved himself the trouble, for they are
all smashing to pieces, and coming back here again."

This was my first personal introduction to the name of John
Batman, and sad enough were the prospects of the little colony at
that time. Numbers were returning to Van Diemen's Land.

A year passed, when a holiday trip to Avoca—the charming
meeting-place of waters—brought me under the shadow of the
greenstone pile of Ben Lomond, near which, by me, stood the house
and farm of John Batman's home at Kingston. Again, and on the
adjoining estate to his own, did I hear tales of this remarkable
man.

And what have I heard? They told me stories of bloodthirsty
natives brought in by the bold hunter, and retained by his spirit
of kindness. They spoke of wondrous feats of horseback—bush
tracking—endurance of hunger, thirst, and fatigue—and
a successful capture of dreadful armed outlaws. I learned that
this man of iron nerve, of powerful frame, and daring courage,
had the manners of a gentleman, the simplicity of a child, the
tenderness of a woman.

Need it be wondered, then, that I thought kindly of the man;
that I felt jealous for his honour when I found it afterwards so
grossly impugned. I am not the apologist for his frailties,
though such were all but universal then in the colony. Blemishes
of the same sort have, unfortunately, been attached to the fair
fame of many whom the world justly regard as heroes and
benefactors. John Batman, in spite of his love of drink, fostered
and encouraged by the house kept by the man who can now so freely
speak of his victim, and in spite of his unhappy devotion to the
other sex, was what his fellow-citizens esteemed honest and
honourable. He was heroic in his nature, seeking enterprises of
danger, and engaging in noble labours. There is no little merit
in him who opens up a wilderness to his race, and leads thousands
to a happy home in a strange land.

Not only have Governors spoken highly of the man, but
philanthropists, like Mr. Backhouse, have hailed his efforts. His
interest in the aboriginal inhabitants will alone entitle him to
gratitude. The Rev. J.H. West, in his History, speaks thus of
him—"To Mr. Batman belongs the praise of mingling humanity
with severity, of perceiving human affections in the creatures he
was commissioned to resist. He certainly began in the midst of
conflict and bloodshed to try the softer influence of
conciliation and charity—being one of the few who
entertained a strong confidence in the power of kindness." Mr.
Melville, in his Australian history, being well acquainted with
the person, speaks of him that he "proceeded not with the sword,
but with the olive branch." This is not the man to be sneered at
for his treaty with the Port Phillip Blacks, whom he believed to
belong to the brotherhood of nations, and whom he sought to treat
with the justice and truth to which their position entitled
them.

As to his veracity, it was unquestioned by those who knew him
best. His old friend, the captain, calls him "a kind-hearted,
heroic, and truthful man". The excellent Mr. George Washington
Walker, the Quaker missionary, often spoke to me of his regard
for John Batman. Mr. Henry Wedge, one of our esteemed
fellow-colonists, writes—"He was always considered a
gentleman and man of honour." Mr. Henry Jennings, our well-known
Melbourne solicitor, can add—"I do not think he would write
falsehoods." The Cornwall Chronicle utters the same hearty
feeling—"We are certain that our brethren of Victoria will
only be too glad to do justice to the memory of a man whose name
will always be cherished by the early settlers of this colony."
Honest old Captain Robson asserts that "he was a brave, athletic,
daring, resolute man, fearing nothing—neither wind nor
weather. His perseverance was beyond anything I ever saw." But
Mr. William Robertson, of Colac, one of our best known and
honoured old colonists, and one of the real founders of the
colony, writes thus to me in full about his former
friend:—

"I am glad to have been afforded an opportunity of adding my
testimony to that of your other correspondents in favour of John
Batman; and am pleased to think that by doing so I may assist
somewhat in rescuing his name and memory from undeserved obloquy.
My acquaintance with Mr. John Batman dates many years before the
expedition to Victoria was contemplated; and from that time up to
the day of his death had so many opportunities of forming a
judgment of what kind of a man he was, that I have not the
slightest hesitation in assuring you that his character for
veracity and probity cannot, with regard to the truth, be in the
slightest degree impugned. From my own observation, as well as
from what I have heard from those who were even more intimately
connected with him than I was, my opinion is that his narrative
may be taken as a strictly truthful report of what he himself
did, and of all that occurred under his immediate notice."

Mr. John Batman, unlike Mr. Fawkner, was a colonial youth. He
was born in 1800, at Parramatta, in New South Wales. His father
was one of the famous band of missionaries first sent to the
South Sea isles, but forced to leave Tahiti through a desolating
war. Mr. William Batman, like several others, fled to the nearest
British settlement, that of Sydney, in 1797; that is, nine years
after its foundation. He betook himself to some business
engagement, and continued to remain in the colony till his death.
In a Sydney magazine of February, 1834, there is this notice of
his decease:—"29th, at Parramatta, Mr. William Batman, aged
sixty-nine years. He resided in the colony thirty-seven years,
was highly respected, and his loss will be long felt by a
numerous circle of friends and acquaintances." Mrs. Batman, sen.,
outlived her son a few months, dying in 1839. He was much
attached to his mother.

About 1820 a love adventure led to his leaving home and
settling in Van Diemen's Land. He early directed his attention to
farming on the northern side of the island. But powerful in
frame, well proportioned, of a goodly stature, robust in health,
full of exuberant spirits, with a love of adventure, he was not
the person for a quiet routine of duty, or the steady pursuit of
a business. He was passionately fond of hunting, and of exploring
new tracks in the dense forests of his island home. All who knew
him assert that he was the finest bushman of their acquaintance;
no danger appalled him, no difficulties turned him. It is not
surprising then that, as he always sided with law and order in
the community, he should take a part with other colonists in
hunting down the bushrangers of the period. For such services he
received a grant of land.

But in a more important work he was next engaged. The
Tasmanian blacks and the colonists came into open and active
warfare. Fearful atrocities marked the conduct of both
combatants. Mr. Batman, in 1829, was put in command of a party.
The object of the Government was to capture, not destroy; but
many took that opportunity of glutting private revenge, or the
instincts of a savage nature, in brutal attacks upon defenceless
and harmless aborigines. Unusual success attended the efforts of
our founder, and ample rewards followed the performance of such
dangerous work. The historian of Tasmania has this noble
record:—"Among those distinguished for their knowledge of
the bush, compassion for the natives, and skill in pursuing them,
Mr. Batman is the subject of frequent and approved mention."

His domestic relations are not without interest. A romantic
attachment for a beautiful girl, under circumstances appealing to
his pity and gallantry, and enlisting the warm sympathy of the
Governor of the colony, ended in a marriage. The fruits of this
union appeared in one son and several daughters. Whatever the
early and later stories of the pair, it is pleasing to record the
fact that their home, under Ben Lomond, at the fine farm of
Kingston, was a very happy one. From three of the daughters I
have learned that the children were well educated and trained,
taught the Scriptures, and even religiously cared for. Several
old settlers have spoken to me most kindly of that part of their
lives. The Governor, himself a man of family and of Christian
character, liked to call in at the homestead, fuid warmly praised
the domestic managements. An old friend, who had many
opportunities of seeing the Batman family, assured me that it
always gave him great pleasure to see the admirable way in which
the children were trained, and the order and comfort of the whole
establishment. However dense and dark the cloud that subsequently
overshadowed them in this Port Philip, and covers history with
gloom, it is pleasing to state their Tasmanian career.

The story of his connection with this colony will be found
elsewhere. It was natural that so active a spirit, and so
intelligent and adventurous a man, should think of the land
across the straits lying neglected and forlorn. It is now forty
years ago since our founder's attention was turned in a practical
shape towards the inviting shore. He found an associate in Mr.
Gellibrand, once Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land, a kindred
genius. They made official application for a settlement there,
but failed. In 1835, however, the worthy pair saw, as they fondly
believed, the realisation of their dreams of rich land and sheep
pastures.

Established in Melbourne with abundant means. Government
favour, and an influential connection, Mr. Batman for a time was
the ruling spirit of the little settlement. The Sydney
Gazette of April, 1836, calls him "the locum tenens of
the Lieutenant-Governor." But the old evils of a rude
civilisation followed his prosperity, ruined his health,
disordered his family, brought mm to an early grave in 1839, and
scattered as well as blasted his once beautiful and happy home.
No one bears his name. His two grandsons with us, sons of Mr.
William Weire, of Geelong, by Elizabeth, the fourth daughter,
needing the active generosity, as well as sympathy of colonists,
are all remaining in Victoria of the race of John Batman. No son
was left to his brother Henry, though I know one of his
daughters. A sad shade has fallen on all. While Mr. Fawkner never
had a child to inherit his name, his rival has left no one to
take the honoured name of Batman.

{Page 6}

LIFE OF MR. FAWKNER.

Although this honorable gentleman has at
various times given us scraps of his interesting autobiography,
all colonists would appreciate his reminiscences of other periods
and places as well as those with which we have at present to be
contented. He lived through the whole of the aboriginal past of
Van Diemen's Land as well as of Port Phillip; and being a man of
remarkable powers of observation, fearless intrepidity, restless
enterprise, and public spirit, no one perhaps could give us so
striking a chronicle.

To satisfy the reader, a short sketch of his career will be
made—the materials being from his own remarks, and those
given by the press when friendly with him; and therefore from his
own dictation.

Born within the sound of Bow Bells, in 1792, and receiving the
rudiments of education in London, he left England when a lad of
ten years to follow his unfortunate father to this side of the
world. His mother and sister were also permitted to sail with the
party forming a convict settlement at Port Phillip, toward the
end of 1803. Removed afterwards to Van Diemen's Land, the
Age says—"As the Fawkners were a family together,
they lost no time in building a hut for themselves." His mother
returned to Europe in two years, and the son and father lived for
some years about eight miles from Hobart Town. When afterwards
living near to the spot, I saw the remains of the chimney of
their ancient habitation. The old man was well-known for certain
harmless peculiarities, not forsaking the ancient fashions of
dress, and preserving that rugged independence of manner which he
has communicated to his son. When I last saw him (one of the few
original Derwenters,) he seemed so hale, as if resolved to keep
our Melbourne hero, J.P. Fawkner, jun., till fourscore years.
Heartily do we wish, for the sake of the colony, that the son may
live to the age of his father.

The little farm, a grant to the family, was no great success,
and when eighteen years old the hero of our tale became a sawyer.
"In the year 1814," according to the Age article, "he was
induced, in the enthusiasm of youth, indiscreetly to furnish
funds, and assist a party of seven persons to build and provide a
cutter, lugger-rigged, in which they were to escape from their
bondage in the island. The vessel was built, provisioned, and
ready for sea, when two of the number discovered the plot to the
authorities. These two persons slipped the cable from the bay in
which it had been built, and ran the cutter up to Hobart Town,
betraying all concerned; and Mr. Fawkner was included among the
persons arrested by the Crown. This portion of Mr. Fawkner's
life, as a matter of course, has been the subject of much
misrepresentations. It has been tortured into the gravest charges
against him. The result of this act of indiscretion was that he
left for Sydney, and did not return till March, 1817."

Not wishing to feed the appetites of scandal-mongers, nor
gauge the depths of a social state so far removed from our own, I
have contented myself with the statement of that part of his
history from what is virtually Mr. Fawkner's own narrative. It
would not have been right to have omitted a reference to it, nor
proper to have plunged into vague rumours of slander, because the
individual had feasted himself and his auditors upon such a
dainty dish, at the expense of the dead. Although a public
personage, with rancorous foes, the temptation to exhibit his
private weaknesses is to be resisted as unworthy of the
historian, and contemptible in manhood. For such reasons we
hasten forward to his Launceston career. In 1826 he opened the
Cornwall Hotel in that town, and conducted it with ability and
success till 1836. In 1829 he originated the Launceston
Advertiser, and, although having an editor, wrote often in
its pages himself. This he disposed of in two years.

His Port Phillip career is the one in which we are most
interested, and about which there is less occasion for gloss or
silence. Here he stands forth prominently a public man, and
challenges the public criticism. And in truth, whatever
prejudices may be entertained against him personally, his worst
opponents concede that his attacks have been as open as they were
bitter. He allowed them no quarter, and so exposed himself to
their unrelenting return. But it will be at the same time
admitted—and this is his crowning glory—that
his contests, however personal and envenomed, were not conducted
for his own pecuniary profit, and that he never served his
country that he might be served.

Rightly contending with him, as I do, upon his language in
reference to the foundation of this colony, I am as ready as
other old colonists to acknowledge the important and useful part
he has played in the politics of Port Phillip. He has ever been
the advocate of civil and religious rights of freedom. He has
ever been the bold defier of oppression and the stem denouncer of
official wrong. He it was who dared the breach to crush the
ancient foe of colonial justice and honour—the venal Major
St. John. Nothing, perhaps, but his very vehemence of onset, his
very persistent, hang-dog bite, his very inaccessibility to soft
appeals, could have thrown down that monstrous evil of our infant
days. And this is but one of many such good deeds. His labours to
plant the people upon the public lands, entitle him to gratitude;
though his determined opposition to the introduction of convicts
into the colony exposed him to some raillery and scorn.

This is not the place to refer to his efforts to establish the
Press among our early colonists. Full particulars may be had in
my "Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip." Commencing with a
manuscript newspaper, he succeeded in raising the Port Phillip
Patriot in 1839, and he has lived to see the developed
Argus, the prince of the southern Press. If the first
newspaper writer and the first publican, he may be called one of
the first farmers. At the sales of 1839 he bought a section of
780 acres, seven miles from town, which he named after himself,
Pascoevale. In 1843, like others, he fell under 'the burden of
commercial care. In 1845 he experienced a similar misfortune;
though, according to the Age, "as soon as his certificate
was issued by the Insolvent Court, he commenced business afresh."
This shows the indomitable energy of the man. Pursuing gardening,
wine-making, and land-selling, he, for the third time, in 1851,
became, especially through the act of others, a victim to
pecuniary difficulties. But the bursting forth of the gold fever
gave him a fresh start, placed him in a good position, and
secured him a competency for the retirement of age, whenever that
period shall come.

In 1842 he gained his first honours, in being elected one of
the Market Commissioners of Melbourne. The next year he entered
the Town Council. At an early period he became a legislator, and
has, for a number of years, been an active member of the Upper
House of Parliament. However crotchety, bigoted, prejudiced,
violent, and personal, he may be in the Council Chamber, he has
generally been found on the side of the people, and a zealous
advocate of progress. Arrived at die age of approaching
seventy-five, he may some day exhibit a decline of energy, and a
lack of interest in political affairs; but at present there is no
evidence of his conviction of that proximate fate. The
representative of the struggling past of the colony, all sections
would join to do him honour, and say "Long may he reign!"

{Page 9}

HOW MR. BATMAN THOUGHT OF SETTLING PORT PHILLIP.

It is interesting to discover that the
craven settlers who forsook Port Phillip for Van Diemen's Land
were not without misgivings as to their prudence, and longing
eyes and thoughts were directed across the straits to the
continent of New Holland. Although for many years after the
foundation of Hobart Town, they had enough to do to maintain
their footing in the island, having such severe struggles with
famine, bushranging, and native aggression, yet the soft airs of
the milder climate were not forgotten. It was then by the
colonists and their sons that the old land became inhabited once
more, and that from the place for which it had been previously
deserted.

Many had thought of attempting the work; but how came Batman
to be so ardent in the matter? Mr. William Robertson was one who
urged promptitude of action, and Mr. Gellibrand helped to carry
out the projection; but Messrs. Wedge and Sams had had long
previous consultations upon it with Mr. Batman. The latter tells
me that they talked much about it on an excursion up Ben Lomond.
As Mr. Wedge has provided me with his reminiscences of the event
so connected with our history, that extract from his letter shall
be presented.

"My recollection," says the gentleman, "of the project of
Batman and myself crossing the Australian continent is fresh in
my mind. We became acquainted with each other in the latter part
of 1824, or beginning of 1825, on the occasion of my marking his
grants of land on the Ben Lomond rivulet. The subject of an
exploring expedition into the interior of New Holland was then
mooted, and its practicability discussed; and we seldom, if ever,
met afterwards without adverting to the subject. But it was not
till some little time before we accompanied Sir George Arthur to
George's Bay on the east coast, in 1831, that we determined on
the plan of effecting our object. Our idea was to take three or
four white men (Batman's servants, on whom he could depend,) and
some Sydney natives, and go by sea to the Gulf of Carpentaria,
and to travel overland from thence to Sydney. Our motive for
adopting this course was that the Sydney natives would not be so
likely to leave us as if we commenced our journey from Sydney;
the more especially as we should be in a portion of the country
occupied by tribes with which they were unacquainted, and amongst
whom they would be afraid to risk themselves without the
protection of white men. We mentioned our scheme to Sir George
Arthur one evening in my tent, which was pitched at Falmouth, Van
Diemen's Land. Sir George entered warmly into the plan, and said
he would submit the proposal to the Secretary of State, and
recommend that our services should be accepted. Lieut. Darling
(recently Governor of Victoria) was of the party, who had
previously expressed a wish to join us. He then volunteered to go
with us. We naturally expected to hear the result of Sir George's
communication in due course; but, after waiting about a year,
either Batman or myself—I forget which—spoke to him
on the subject, and to our surprise, and no little
disappointment, we learnt that he had never written on the
subject."

Elsewhere Mr. Wedge writes, "Mr. Batman and myself then fell
back upon our original scheme, and determined to carry it out as
a private enterprise. The plan Mr. Batman and myself had first
arranged, founded on information we had obtained from parties who
had been there, was to land on Portland Bay, and to examine the
country from thence; but we were induced to abandon this idea
from fresh information obtained by Mr. Batman, in reference to
the country around Port Phillip."

Messrs. Batman and Wedge got this intelligence of Port Phillip
and Portland Bay from the sealers, as my friend, Mr. Simeon Lord,
formerly neighbour of Mr. Batman's, satisfactorily shows. These
venturesome prowlers of the straits were continually wandering
about the southern coast and islands of New Holland. They had
settlements on several spots, providing themselves with wives
after the approved classical fashion, by stealing the ladies from
their husbands and brothers of the dark tribes on the mainland.
These rough fellows were either runaway sailors or bolting
convicts. Communicating through safe media with Launceston, much
valuable knowledge was picked up about the opposite shore. Mr.
Batman had quick ears for such news as this.

The report of Messrs. Hume and Hovell's overland trip from
Sydney to the southern shores, towards the end of 1824 and
beginning of 1825, gave a great impetus to Batman's ideas.
Captain Hovell believed he saw Western Port, while the better
bushman, Mr. Hume, a Sydney born, regarded the "Geelong" of the
blacks he inet to be a part of Port Phillip Bay. But the
Australian's report was less regarded than that of his official
companion. When, therefore, the New South Wales Governor
determined to establish a colony on the fair plains of Geelong,
he sent Captain Hovell with a party of convicts to Western Port.
This proved a failure; and Home orders coming out for
concentration, Western Port was abandoned in December, 1826.

At this time, becoming acquainted with Mr. Gellibrand, the
Hobart Town lawyer, Mr. Batman's thoughts were fixed upon the
deserted field. It was resolved to apply to the New South Wales
Governor for land there? and the solicitor, as the scholar of the
partners, drew up the following letter:—

Launceston, January 11, 1827.

Sir,—Understanding that it is your
Excellency's intention to establish a permanent settlement at
Western Port, and to afford encouragement to respectable people
to settle there, we beg leave most respectfully to solicit at the
hands of your Excellency a grant of land at that place,
proportionate to the property which we intend to embark.

"We are in the possession of some flocks of sheep, highly
improved, some of the Merino breed, and others of the pure South
Devon, of some pure Devon cattle, imported from England, and also
of a fine breed of horses.

We propose to shift from this place 1500 to 2000 sheep, 30 head
of superier cows, oxen, horses, &c. &c., to the value of
£4000 to £5000; the whole to be under the personal
direction of Mr. Batman (who is a native of New South Wales,) who
will constantly reside there for the protection of the
establishment.

Under these circumstances, we are induced to hope your Excellency
will be pleased to grant us a tract of land proportionate to the
sum of money we propose to expend, and also to afford us every
encouragement in carrying out the proposed object into
effect.

"We have, &c.,

(Signed) {

J.T. GELLIBRAND.
JOHN BATMAN.

To his Excellency Lieut.-General Darling, &c.
&c.

There was nothing unreasonable or objectionable in the
request. The form of grant was that in common use at that period.
A man arrived with money, he took that money to the Governor,
declaring it to be his own, and he there and then obtained a free
grant of land subject to a trifling quit rent, according to his
capital, though not more man 2560 acres. Such was the usage in
New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. We have not the reply to
the letter of Messrs. Gellibrand and Batman, but there remains
the record of his Excellency's minute upon it, of which this is a
copy:—

Acknowledge and inform them that no determination
having been come to with respect to the settlement of Western
Port, it is not in my power to comply with the request.
March 17th.

(Signed) R.D.

Can we wonder, after this rejection of their prayer, that the
two thought of no further-reliance upon Government, but upon a
treaty with the aborigines? This was an opportunity lost of
settling the place without home expenditure, and yet within the
bounds of the colony of New South Wales. Mr. Batman, a free man,
of free descent, was desirous of laying the foundations of a free
colony here in 1827. The adventurers were men of substance and of
recognised respectability, anxious to fulfil the requirements of
law. Land at that time was cheap enough in the old settlements;
for if granted land was not estimated at above an average of a
shilling or two an acre in Van Diemen's Land it would certainly
be valued at considerably less in such a corner of the south as
Western Port. Far better days were in store for the squatters,
when, instead of a paltry grant of acres, they could have the
legal run over many square miles for pastoral purposes. Their
flock of 2000 would soon have outgrown the boundaries of the
largest grant. Some of our shepherd kings since have possessed
the grass of hundreds of thousands of acres.

Disappointed, but not despairing, the two friends waited for
better times. In 1833 Mr. Hume gave a full account of his
expedition in 1825. This Sydney production was read with the
greatest avidity by our founder and his sympathisers. Again their
hopes revived, and again did they look around for means to carry
out their long-cherished scheme of settling our colony. In the
year 1834, while perfecting their own plans, Mr. Henty and sons,
went off to Portland Bay. It was an urgent time. The
circumstances of the island were more pressing. The multitudes of
prisoners of the Crown thrust upon it had greatly absorbed the
public lands. The pastures were limited, not merely because the
coast line embraced but 24,000 square miles, but by the vast
amount of worthless scrubs, impracticable forests, and barren
mountains. The very sheep and cattle seemed to sigh for more
succulent and plentiful food.

But who was to go first? And how was he to go? Moreover, were
the reports really true about the good land beyond?

Difficulties of no ordinary magnitude appeared. A savage
population, doubtful country,-absence of market, and no
protection, were before the perplexed colonists. Feeble parties
might be cut off by the natives, or perish for lack of support,
as some of the early American locations suffered. If only they
knew that all would be well, numbers were ready to flock thither.
The year 1834 thus passed in discussion amidst hopes and fears.
Fathers were sighing as they looked at their stalwart sons and
their own limited fields. The young men were impatiently waiting
at the old and worn-out farm for something to do—for
something to call forth their energies, their enthusiasm, their
honest labour.

John Batman must go and see.

{Page 14}

MR. BATMAN'S VISIT TO PORT PHILLIP.

Acting in conjunction with a
few—but as a leader, not a deputy—our founder
prepared to go and see. He had but one determined course. He had
given up Western Port, which was afterwards sought by his rival,
and confined his efforts to the examination of Port Phillip
shores on the western side.

Let us take the story from his own journal, and reserve
criticism for another opportunity.

He went on board his little craft of fifteen tons, the
Rebecca, on Sunday, May 10, 1835, at Launceston. He was
accompanied by his own servants, and the Sydney blacks. Pigeon,
Crook, and company, who had been so useful to him in his first
labours. Contrary winds hindered his passage out to sea from the
Tamar. On Thursday he sent back Capt. Harwood to Launceston for
more meat and biscuit, for he says: "I do not like the idea of
going myself again to Launceston, after taking a farewell of all
my friends for some time." On Saturday the captain returned,
bringing provisions and letters to George Town. Then follows a
little bit of the conjugal: "At half-past five o'clock, to my
astonishment, Mrs. Batman arrived with our groom in the gig. She
had received my letters, and thought I might remain here some
days yet, and therefore thought she might as well come down." The
pair were two days together at this wind-bound station. On
Monday, the 18th May, the captain sent word for all on board,
as-the wind was fair. His wife drove to the Lighthouse hill to
see the last of the vessel at night. The last entry of that day's
journal is this: "Hope my dear wife may return home safe."

As the winds afterwards opposed Mr. Fawkner on his passage,
and fairly drove him sea-sick to shore quarters, so did they beat
back our venturous little bark, with Mr. Batman on board. The
Rebecca was forced on Tuesday to put into Port Sorell.
Getting away next evening, they were still in the northern gale,
with, as we are told, "the sea running mountains high, the
Rebecca jumping about like a kangaroo." Back they were
driven again. On the 23rd there was a shift of breeze to the
westward, and "no such thing as moving. When we are to get from
this, God only knows!" He obtained some tools from the
limeburners at Port Sorell, "intending," adds the journal, "to
leave Gumm and the other man at Port Phillip, if everything
answers and turns out to my expectations."

On the Sunday, a fortnight after his first start at
Launceston, the vexatious calms and rough winds, alternately kept
him near the old spot, and the writer mournfully pens his
complaint: "When shall we get away from this? I am almost mad,
but must wait with patience; I do not know what to do or how to
act." The sea was running mountains high at the Heads next day,
and again they have to retreat. "When shall we have wind?" cries
the poor fellow, "Oh, dear!" He has but one source of
satisfaction in this dreary time—writing to his beloved and
loving wife "four large and long letters." His Sydney natives
proposed sleeping on shore each night. Off he went at last, on
the Tuesday, with a fair wind, to the westward. "I am thankful
for this", says the journalist.

Anchoring at the West Hunter Island, the explorer must have a
ramble, and found out a large cove, forty feet high, forty feet
broad, and 180 deep. He hoped for a good run that night, and he
had his wish, passing King's island and sighting New Holland at
mid-day. He reached Port Phillip Heads on Friday, May 29,
nineteen days after sailing from Launceston. It is now a passage
of that number of hours. This is Mr. Batman's
description:—"The wind was light, and after some difficulty
we got in; width about a mile and a-quarter; the depth five and
a-half to seven fathoms of water. We got well into the port about
ten o'clock, where the water is very smooth, and one of the
finest basins of water I ever saw, and most extensive."

He was no sooner in than he was saluted: "As we were sailing
up the port, heard a dog on the shore howling; cannot think what
brought it there." Going twelve miles within the port to anchor
they saw another dog on the shore. The fate of this animal was a
sad omen of the fate of the native dog's aboriginal master from
the coming of the white man. "We put off"," says the journal,
"and came up to the dog, which proved to be a native dog of New
Holland, which had surely left the natives within a day or two,
he came quite close to my natives, and did not appear at all
afraid, but would not suffer them to take hold of him. Our dogs,
after some time, took after him, and run him into the water,
where we shot him."

Now they are after the poor dog's native friends, tracks of
whom had been seen with the huts by the beach, where they had
been eating mussels. This is the description of the country:
"Beautiful land, and all good sheep country, rather sandy, but
the sand black and rich, covered with kangaroo grass about ten
inches high, and as green as a field of wheat, beautiful plains,
excellent land, &c." Can we wonder that Mr. Batman's report
of such a place should have sent the island settlers mad about
it? Sealers and sailors had talked before, but now they had the
evidence of such a bushman and farmer as John Batman himself.

On the Saturday he has more to say in praise. "Good hay could
be made, and in any quantity. I never saw anything equal to the
land in my life. I was never so astonished in my life." On the
Friday they had walked but twelve miles, but on the Saturday
twenty. They had anchored about St. Leonard's, wandered over the
Bellerine hills, and beheld the magnificent Geelong plains. Not
astonishing that he said: "From what I have seen I am quite
delighted with Port Phillip."

Sunday came when they were in Gellibrand's Harbour, the mouth
of the Werribee or the Little River. On this day they came up to
the natives. The story is so simply told, that the journal must
be quoted:—

"At daylight this morning we landed to endeavour to meet the
natives. We had not proceeded more than a mile and a-half when we
saw the smoke at seven large huts. My natives stripped off, and
went up to them quite naked. When they got to the huts, found
that they had left this morning. Then, with the natives, went
round, and found by their tracks the direction they went in. We
followed on their tracks for ten miles or nearly, when Stomert(?)
one of my natives, saw a black at the distance of a mile. We were
at this time spread along. He made a sign to us, and all made in
the same direction. He came up to the person (an old woman,)
quite a cripple. She had no toes on one foot. We then saw the
remainder of the tribe about a mile further on. We made towards
them, and got up to them about one o'clock p.m. They seemed quite
pleased with my natives, who could partially understand them.
They sang and danced for them. I found them to be only women and
children, twenty of the former, and twenty-four of the latter.
The women were all of a small size, and every woman had a child
at her back except one, who was quite a young woman, and very
good looking."

How sad a tale is now told of the natives! Not nineteen out of
twenty women can now exhibit an infant. Not one out of twenty?
Not one out of a much larger number!

The explorer brought the ladies to the depôt of the
party, and gave them handkerchiefs, bead necklaces, looking
glasses, and sweet sugar and apples. As a gallant man he has a
word more about the apparently unappropriated maiden:—"The
young woman whom I have spoken of before, gave me a very handsome
basket of her own make." Thirty miles finished this ramble, the
next morning he was off again on his journey, hoping to fall in
with the savage lords of his female friends. His curiosity was
attracted by the skeleton of a curious animal, which he resolves
to save "for a learned gentleman to study over on my return to
Van Diemen's Land." Again he traverses rich and almost treeless
plains; he ascends Mounts Cottrell and Connelly to see the
country round.-He saw the smoke of native fires under one of
these hills, and makes up his mind to a long ramble inland,
meeting the vessel again at the head of the bay.

On Tuesday, June 2, he approached what, from its description,
may be supposed to be the site of Williamstown, and prepared for
a run up the Saltwater river. The next day he is off on his
expedition with some of his Sydney blacks. Walking many miles and
wanting fresh water, Gumm manages to find some by digging a
little well with a stick. On Thursday morning, Batman names
Mounts Wedge and Sams, after two others of the Association. Again
he cries out, "Most beautiful pasturage I ever saw in my life."
He sees marshmallows with leaves as big as cabbage leaves, and as
high as his head. He traverses the Keilor plains and drinks of
the Deep Creek, and calculates he has been thirty miles that
day.

Friday finds him taking a west-north-west direction, crossing
more creeks, one of which he calls after his wife Eliza. Smoke is
seen to the eastward, and he travels round to it.

The 6th of June has arrived, and they started at last with the
expectation of coming up with the natives. They were alongside
Merri Creek—called Lucy after Batman's daughter. And now
comes the interesting entry about the wild man:—

"We walked about eight miles when we fell in with the tracks
of the natives, and shortly after came up with a family—one
chief, his wife, and three children. I gave him a pair of
blankets, handkerchiefs, beads, and three knives. He then went on
with us, and crossed a freshwater creek. The land on each side
excellent. He took us on, saying he would take us to the tribe,
and mentioned the names of chiefs. We walked about eight miles,
when, to our surprise, we heard several voices calling after us.
On looking back we saw eight men, all armed with spears, &c.
When we stopped they threw aside their weapons, and came very
friendly up to us: After shaking hands, and my giving them
tomahawks, knives, &c., they took us with them, about a mile
back, where we found their huts, women, and children."

It was here, on the banks of the Merri, or Lucy Creek, about
the site of Northcote, and overlooking the adjacent lands of
Collingwood Flat, that he mode his memorable treaty with the
aborigines, to which we shall hereafter refer.

Leaving Batman's Creek, called "after my own good self", and
the kind-hearted chiefs with whom he had made his treaty, he
passed along Maria's valley, named after his eldest daughter, and
reached a forest. This, from the description, must be what we now
call the Royal Park, by the University of Melbourne. "A forest,"
he says, "thinly timbered with gum, wattle, and sheoak. The land,
for the first time, was rather sandy, with a little gravel." He
had, in fact, left the rich soil on the basaltic rocks, and now
walked on one of the palæozoic hills forming Melbourne
east, Melbourne west, Fitzroy Hill, Carlton Hill, Richmond Hill,
Northcote, and University Hill. Anxious to get to his vessel,
lying at the mouth of the Saltwater River, he found as he
descended from the high land of North Melbourne that he would
have to cross what is now known as Batman's Swamp. This being an
additional proof of his having seen and visited the site of
Melbourne five months before Mr. Fawkner came, the journal story
must be cited:—

"I crossed, on the banks of the river, a large marsh about one
mile and a-half wide, by three or four miles long, of the richest
description of soil—not a tree. When we got on the marsh
the quails began to fly, and I think, at one time, I can safely
say I saw a thousand quail flying at one time—quite a
cloud. I never saw anything like it before. I shot two large ones
as I walked along. At the upper end of the marsh is a large
lagoon. I should think, from the distance I saw, that it was
upwards of a mile across, and full of swans, ducks, geese,
&c. After crossing this marsh we passed through a tea-tree
scrub, very high and thick. We expected, on getting through this,
to make the vessel in an hour or two, but, to our great surprise,
when we got through the scrub we found ourselves on a much larger
river than the one we went up and had just come down."

The scrub was that from below the Melbourne Gas Company's
works, alongside the Yarra to Saltwater. We discover from the
journal that he followed the edge of this Yarra to its junction
with the river he had before known—the Saltwater. Sending
Bullet and Bungett swimming over to bring up the boat, he thus
proceeds: "I was glad to see them, as we had got on the point
at the junction of the rivers, where the tide had now
risen up to our ankles." He got safely on board, "where," says
he, "my travelling, I hope (on land) will cease for some time,
"having done everything I could possibly wish." Not bad work
either; for although he does not tell us every day's work, he
gives one day twenty miles, and two or three days thirty
each.

It was on Sunday, June 7th, that he walked along by the Yarra.
He determined to leave three white men, Gumm, Dodd, and Thompson,
with the three Sydney natives, Bullett, Bungett, and Old Bull
upon Indented Head with three months' supply, while he returned
to Van Diemen's Land. Taking with him, therefore, on board, the
Port Phillip presents of spears, wommeras, boomerangs, and stone
tomahawks, he tried to get from the Williamstown waters. But the
winds were as unwilling for him to quit the land as they had been
for him to visit it. Too active to lose time, he took a row up
the Yarra. This is his story.

"The boat went up the large river I have spoken of, which
comes from the east, and I am glad to state, about six miles up,
found the river all good water, and very deep. This will be
the place for a village."

Hastening back from the future Melbourne Wharf, he landed at
Indented Head on the Tuesday. All his Sydney men wanted to stay,
so he permitted Pigeon and Joe the marine to remain with the
rest, eight in all. They were directed to plant garden seeds,
fruits and potatoes. To show his faith in his work, he says: "I
left apples and oranges with them, also the six dogs, and gave
Gumm written authority to put off any person or persons that may
trespass on the land I have purchased from the natives." Shaking
hands all round, the sea party got through the Heads on Sunday
evening, ran eighty miles that night, and entered George Town at
six on the Thursday morning, "with a fair wind up the river" to
Launceston.

Thus propitiously ended the voyage so inauspiciously began.
Like the heroes of ancient history, he had conquered the fates by
his courage.

{Page 21}

OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF MR. BATMAN.

Immediately upon the return of Mr.
Batman with the brave news of the new country, a consultation of
the associated friends took place, when it was resolved to make a
formal address to the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land,
in the shape of a letter from Mr. Batman. Again was the ready
hand of Mr. Gellibrand called into requisition, as can be
detected in the flowing diction of the following document,
manufactured from the explorer's simple journal. It is dated a
few days after the return of the Rebecca.

Hobart Town, 26th June, 1835.

Sir,—I have the honour of reporting
to your Excellency for the information of His Majesty's
Government the result of an expedition, undertaken at the expense
and in conjunction with several gentlemen, inhabitants of Van
Diemen's Land, to Port Phillip, on the south-western point of New
Holland, for the purpose of forming an extensive pastoral
establishment, and combining therewith the civilisation of the
native tribes who are living in that part of the country.

Before I enter into the details, I deem it necessary to state for
the information of His Majesty's Government, that I am a native
of New South Wales, and that for the last six years I have been
most actively employed in endeavouring to civilise the aboriginal
natives of Van Diemen's Land; and in order to enable the local
Government of this colony to carry that important object into
full effect, I procured from New South Wales eleven aboriginal
natives of New Holland, who were under my guidance, mainly
instrumental in carrying into effect the humane object of this
Government towards the aborigines of this island.

I also deem it necessary to state that I have been for many years
impressed with the opinion that a most advantageous settlement
might be formed at Western Port, or Port Phillip, and that in
1827 Mr. J.T. Gellibrand and myself addressed a joint letter to
the colonial Government of New South Wales, soliciting permission
to occupy land at Port Phillip, with an undertaking to export to
that place stock to the value of £5000, and which was to be
placed for a certain number of years under my personal direction
and superintendence. This application was not granted by the
Sydney Government, because the land was beyond the limits of that
territory, and the occupation of Western Port had been altogether
abandoned.

It occurred to myself and some of the gentlemen who are
associated with me, that inasmuch as the Sydney natives who were
living with me had become well acquainted with the English
language and manners, and had acquired habits of industry and
agricultural pursuits, they might therefore be considered
partially civilised; and as the available lands in this colony
were occupied by flocks of sheep, and fully stocked, it would be
a favourable opportunity of opening a direct friendly intercourse
with the tribes in the neighbourhood of Port Phillip, and by
obtaining from them a grant of a portion of that territory upon
equitable principles, not only might the resources of this colony
be considerably extended, but the object of civilisation be
established, and which in process of time would lead to the
civilisation of a large portion of the aborigines of that
extensive country.

In pursuance of arrangements based upon these principles I
proceeded on the 12th day of May, 1835, in a vessel from
Launceston, accompanied by seven Sydney natives, and proceeded to
Port Phillip, on the south-western extremity of New Holland,
where I landed on the 26th day of May.

On the evening of our arrival at Port Phillip, we saw the native
fires at the distance of about five miles; I then made my
arrangements for the purpose of opening an interview with the
natives by means of those under my charge. I equipped them in
their native dresses, and early in the morning we landed. I
desired the natives to proceed unarmed, and they preceded me a
few hundred yards. When we had advanced within half-a-mile we saw
the native huts and smoke. My natives then proceeded quietly up
to the huts, expecting that we should find the tribe asleep, but
when they had got to the huts it appeared that the natives had
fled a few hours previously, leaving behind them some of their
buckets and other articles.

I concluded from this that the natives had discerned the vessel,
and had quitted their huts through fear; and as I thought it
probable they might in consequence quit the coast for a season, I
determined immediately to put my natives upon the track, and, if
possible, overtake them, and at once obtain their confidence.

My natives followed the track, which appeared to have been very
circuitous, and after we had proceeded about ten miles we at
length saw a tribe consisting of twenty women and twenty-four
children.

My natives then made to them some of their friendly signals,
which it appeared were understood, and in the course of a few
minutes my natives joined the tribe, and after remaining with
them as I judged sufficient length of time to conciliate them and
explain my friendly disposition, I advanced alone and joined
them, and was introduced to them by my natives, two of whom spoke
nearly the same language, and so as to be perfectly intelligible
to them.

The two interpreters explained to them by my directions that I
had come in a vessel from the other shores to settle amongst them
and be upon friendly terms; that I was, although a white, a
countryman of theirs, and would protect them, and I wished them
to return with me to their nuts, where I had left some presents
for them.

After some conversation the whole party, women and children,
returned with me and my natives towards the huts, until they came
within sight of the shore, they then stopped and hesitated in
proceeding, and as I understood from the interpreters were afraid
I should take them by force and ill-use them, as some of their
tribe had been already ill-treated.

After the strongest assurances on my part of my sincerity and
friendly disposition, and that no harm should be done to them,
they proceeded to the huts, where I gave them a pair of blankets
each, tomahawks, knives, scissors, looking-glasses; and I
affixed, round the neck of each woman and child, a necklace.

As soon as I had distributed the presents, they were informed by
the interpreters that they might depart and join their friends,
and I left them and proceeded on board the vessel. They appeared,
by my conduct towards them, highly gratified and excited, and
showed by their manner that the fullest confidence existed.

On the next and five following days I employed myself in
surveying the country, and although I saw several native fires, I
abstained from intruding upon them, leaving the interview I had
had with the women to have its full effect upon the tribes,
before I visited them again.

On the seventh day I proceeded towards the place where I had seen
the fires, and where I had reason to believe the tribes were, and
I sent my natives forward with the same instructions as upon the
first occasion. We remained up the country all night and
proceeded early the next morning, under the expectation of
meeting the tribes. After we had proceeded about seven miles, we
fell in with a native man, his wife, and three children, who
received my natives with apparent cordiality, and informed them
that the women to whom I had given the presents, although
belonging to another tribe, had communicated to them the
reception they had met with from me.

I learned from this native where the chiefs of the tribe were
stationed, and also their names, and this man most readily
offered to act as our guide and take us at once to the spot. We
then proceeded with the man, his wife, and children, towards the
huts of the chiefs; but it appeared that the guide took us past
the spot where the chiefs were, and some of the children, having
observed a white man, gave the alarm, and almost immediately we
found the tribe in our rear, advancing towards us with spears and
in a menacing position. My natives, with the man, woman, and
children, then called out to the tribe, and they immediately
dropped their spears and other implements in the grass, and the
two sable parties advanced towards each other, and I shortly
followed them.

Some conversation then took place between my natives and the
tribe. The object of my visit and intentions were then explained
to them, and the chiefs then pressed me to proceed with them to
see their wives and children, which is one of the strongest
demonstrations of peace and confidence. Upon my assenting to this
request, the chiefs then inquired of my interpreters whether I
would allow them to take up their implements of war, which I
immediately assented to, and the principal chief then gave me his
best spear to carry, and I in return gave him my gun.

We then proceeded towards the huts, and when a short distance
from them, the chief called out to the women not to be alarmed,
and I was then introduced to the whole tribe, consisting of
upwards of twenty men; containing, altogether, fifty-five men,
women, and children.

I joined this tribe about twelve o'clock, and staid with them
until about twelve o'clock the next day, during which time I
fully explained to them that the object of my visit was to
purchase from them a tract of their country, that I intended to
settle amongst them with my wife and seven daughters, and that I
intended to bring to the country sheep and cattle. I also
explained my wish to protect them in every way, to employ them
the same as my own natives, and also to clothe and feed them, and
I also proposed to pay them an annual tribute as a compensation
for the enjoyment of the land.

The chiefs appeared most fully to comprehend my proposals, and
much delighted with the prospect of having me to live amongst
them. I then explained to them the boundaries of the land which I
wished to purchase, and which are defined by hills, to which they
have affixed native names: and the limits of the land purchased
by me are defined in the chart which I have the honour of
transmitting, taken from personal survey.

On the next day the chiefs proceeded with me to the boundaries,
and they marked, with their own native marks, the trees at the
comers of the boundaries, and they also gave me their own private
mark, which is kept sacred by them, even so much that the women
are not allowed to see it.

After the boundaries had been thus marked and described, I filled
up as accurately as I could define it, the land agreed to be
purchased by me from the chiefs, and the deed, when thus filled
up, was most carefully read over and explained to them by the two
interpreters, so that they most fully comprehended its purport
and effect. I then filled up two other parts of the deed so as to
make it in triplicate, and the three principal chiefs and five of
the subordinate chiefs then executed each of the deeds, each part
being separately read over, and they each delivered to me a piece
of the soil for the purpose of putting me in possession thereof,
I understanding that it was a form by which they delivered to me
the tract of land.

I have the honour of enclosing herewith a copy of each of the
deeds executed by the natives to me, which I confidently trust
will most clearly manifest that I have proceeded upon an
equitable principle, that my object has not been possession and
expulsion, or what is worse, extermination; but possession and
civilisation, and the reservation of the annual tribute to those
who are the real owners of the soil will afford evidence of the
sincerity of my professions in wishing to protect and civilise
these tribes of benighted but intelligent people, and I
confidently trust that the British Government will duly
appreciate the treaty which I have made with these tribes, and
will not in any manner molest the arrangements which I have made,
but that I shall receive the support and encouragement of not
only the Local Government, but that of the British Government in
carrying the objects into effect.

I quitted Port Phillip on the 14th day of June, having parted
with the tribes in the most friendly and conciliatory manner,
leaving five of my natives and three white men to commence a
garden near the harbour, and to erect a house for my temporary
occupation, on my return with my wife and family.

I arrived at Launceston after a passage of thirty-six hours,
which will at once show the geographical advantages of this
territory to Van Diemen's Land; and in a few years, I have no
hesitation in affirming, from the nature of the soil, that the
exports of wool and meat to Van Diemen's Land will form a
considerable feature in its commercial relations.

I traversed the country in opposite directions about fifty miles,
and having had much experience in lands and grazing in New South
Wales, and in this colony, I have no hesitation in asserting that
the general character of the country is decidedly superior to any
which I have ever seen. It is interspersed with fine rivers and
creeks, and the Downs were extended on every side as far as the
eye could reach, thickly covered with grass of the finest
description, and containing an almost indescribable extent of
fine land fit for any purposes.

I have finally to report that the following are the gentlemen who
are associated with me in the colonisation at Port Phillip, many
of whom will reside with their establishment at Port Phillip, and
all of whom are prepared, and intend immediately to export stock,
which will be under my general guidance and immediate
superintendence:—

C. Swanston,

|

J.T. Gellibrand,

James Simpson,

|

—— M'Arthur,

J. AND W. Robertson,

|

J. Sinclair,

T.H. Wedge,

|

A. Cotterell,

J.T. Collicott,

|

M. Conolly,

W.G. Sams,

|

Geo. Mercer.

Thomas Bannister,

|

The quantity of stock exported this year will be at the least
20,000 breeding ewes; and one of the leading stipulations will
be, that none but married men of good character, with their
families, will be sent either as overseers or servants, so that
by no possibility any personal injury shall be offered to the
natives or their families; and it is also intended for the
purpose of preserving due order and morality that a minister or
catechist shall be attached to the establishment at the expense
of the association.

The chiefs, to manifest their friendly feeling towards me,
insisted upon my receiving from them two native cloaks and
several baskets made by the woman, and also some of their
implements of defence, which I beg to transmit.

The women generally are clothed with cloaks of a description
somewhat similar, and they certainly appear to me to be of a
superior race to any natives whom I have ever seen.

I have the honor, &c.,

BATMAN.

When the Proclamation of the New South Wales Governor-General
Bourke thundered forth its disapproval of the settlement, in
spite of the appeal of the deputation of contemplated settlers,
the Tasmanian Association bravely contended for their rights, and
Mr. Batman was advised to write to Governor Arthur, of Van
Diemen's Land, who had long been personally favourable to him, to
enlist his sympathy, by showing more definitely the views of the
Company. This was the communication:

Launceston, October 23, 1835.

Sir,—I had the honour in the month
of July last of transmitting you a report of my proceedings at
Port Phillip, for the purpose of effecting an amicable settlement
with the natives of that part of New Holland, and of the treaty
concluded by me for the occupation of a certain tract of country
under a certain annual tribute, and to be used for pastoral
purposes, and in that report I communicated to your Excellency
the names of the gentlemen who are associated with me in forming
the settlement. At that time it was considered by the members of
the association that the territory in question was beyond the
jurisdiction of his Excellency the Governor of New South Wales,
and the report was therefore addressed to your Excellency for the
purpose of being transmitted to the British Government, under the
expectation of the Crown confirming the land thus ceded upon such
terms as might appear equitable and just, and for that purpose
full instructions were transmitted by the gentlemen of the
association to responsible agents in London to represent their
interests with the British Government, and to fulfil such
conditions as they might agree with the Crown for a full
confirmation or grant of the territory in question; but as it now
appears, by the Governor-in-Chief's proclamation, that his
Excellency exercises jurisdiction over the territory in question
as part of New South Wales, I have the honour to solicit that you
will be pleased to fully inform his Excellency General Bourke of
the proposed plans of the association, their capacity to carry
them into execution, and the principles under which they wish to
establish a colony at Port Phillip. I have the honour to inform
your Excellency that the association does not possess any
community of interests, but the stock will be the separate
property of each party shipping, and be placed upon separate
establishments, and that as soon as the pleasure 01 the British
Government is known with regard to the terms upon which the
territory may be granted that a division of the lauds will then
be formally made, and from that period each party will have a
separated and distinct permanent establishment, furnishing a
proportion of quit rent or tribute payable for the same, and also
of other expenses which will be necessarily imposed in carrying
the objects of civilisation into effect.

The parties have engaged two ships for the transmission of stock
and supplies, and in the course of six months they will have
property there to the value of £25,000 at least, and there
can be little doubt that in a very short space of time a colony
of great importance not only to the mother country but to both
colonies will be established.

The association has already felt some inconvenience by
individuals who have recently quitted the port of Launceston,
and, in defiance of our occupation of the land from the natives,
have fixed themselves onipart of the territory, and serious
apprehensions are entertained that they will materially check if
not destroy the principles of civilisation unless controlled by
competent authority, and I am therefore requested most
respectfully to surest the propriety of proper authority being
given to some individual for the purpose of enabling the members
of the association to carry on the principle of colonisation and
civilisation until the pleasure of the British Government may be
communicated, and maturer plans be adopted; and I am authorised
to add, that the members of the association will most cheerfully
defray such portion of the expenses attendant on the measure as
the local government may consider fair and reasonable. I propose
immediately to proceed with my family to Port Phillip, to take,
with Mr. Wedge, the direction of the affairs of the association
and the arrangements with the native tribes, and as the vessel
will be engaged for the next six months in carrying stock to Port
Phillip, the association will be happy to carry into effect any
arrangements for building for such persons as the Government may
think fit to send. I have the honour of reporting the progress
made by the association since July last with the native tribes
from that period up to the commencement of this month, when Mr.
Wedge left Port Phillip. The intercourse has been kept up upon
the most friendly terms, and from eighty to a hundred natives
have been clothed and supplied with daily rations at the expense
of the association. The natives have been partially occupied in
habits of industry, and I have not the least hesitation in
affirming that, if no unforeseen obstacles occur, a gradual
system of civilisation will obtain.

In the report the association communicated their intention of
engaging a surgeon and catechist. This pledge has been realised,
and Dr. Thomson proceeds with me to execute the duties.

(Signed) J. BATMAN.

To his Excellency Governor Arthur.

There is yet one more letter written by Mr. Batman, on the
occasion of his return from Port Phillip on another occasion.
Through the courtesy of Mr. Sams, of Launceston, I have been
furnished with a copy. It is directed to Mr. Montague, then
Colonial-Secretary of the island, and in the same position upon
my arrival in Hobart Town. The simple brevity marks it as the
work of honest John himself, without the help of his legal
friend.

Launceston, 30th November. 1835.

Sir,—I beg to acquaint you, for the
information of his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, that on
Thursday last I arrived at George Town, in the barque
Norval, from Port Phillip, after a passage of about thirty
hours (the same space of time having been occupied in my passage
there.) On my arrival at the station of the Association on
Indented Head, where only two white men with two Sydney natives
are now staying, I was happy to find that a most friendly feeling
existed between them and the aborigines, between sixty and
seventy of whom were also there, in proof of which feeling I need
only acquaint your Excellency that my party had been for many
days without rations; but, by the kindness of the friendly
natives, had been well supplied with the roots on which they
chiefly subsist, and which my people assured me they found
nutritious and agreeable. It is gratifying to know that should
supplies at any time fail, nature has provided that which will
secure them from want. I then proceeded to the north-east part of
the port, where the settlement is formed, where I landed the
cattle and sheep, and found everything progressing in a way
beyond my most sanguine expectations; so favourable are the soil
and climate to vegetation that we found the people well supplied
with vegetables of the finest growth and quality, the produce of
seeds sown only about ten weeks before, and they were able to
supply the ship with potatoes and a variety of other vegetables
for our return voyage. The wheat was looking most luxuriant, the
people all well satisfied, and not one wishing to return. The
country affords them an abundant supply of fish and wild fowl,
and as regards the stock, all which were taken there ten or
twelve weeks since had improved beyond description; and
incredible as it may appear, the change for the better, which
took place in the condition of the stock taken down by me, during
the four or five days I remained, was so great that I must myself
have witnessed it to have believed it. The intercourse with the
natives had gone on well. Once since our establishment as many as
400 natives were assembled for the purpose of settling some
ancient quarrel; and, although so many Afferent tribes were
collected together, uniform good will was shown by all of them
towards the white people, and the dispute they had met to settle
ended without any more unfortunate result than a slight wound in
the arm, which one of them received. Shortly after, 270 of them
left the settlement, and were at their own request ferried across
the river in our whale-boat. Here I cannot refrain expressing my
thankfulness to that good Providence which threw "Buckley" in our
way, for certainly he has been the medium of successfully
establishing between us and the natives an understanding, which,
without his assistance, could never have been effected to the
extent it has been, and which now leaves no room to doubt the
most beneficial results in proof of the present favourable state
of intercourse with them. I may mention that for the trifling
gratuity of a piece of bread they are always ready to perform any
useful service as far as their ability will go. During my stay
there Buckley explained to the several chiefs our motives and
intentions in settling amongst them and the consequences which
might arise from any aggression on their part. He also explained
that any ill-treatment on the part of white men towards them, if
reported to the heads of the establishment, would meet with its
proper punishment. With this understanding they were perfectly
well pleased, and promised to act in conformity with it. In fact,
however sanguine I may previously have been as to the complete
success of the undertaking, I feel now infinite reason to be much
more so; and doubt not but the settlement now formed will be
useful, not only to all immediately concerned, but to the mother
country as well as to this colony.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) JOHN BATMAN.

[John Montagu, Esq., Colonial Secretary.]

P.S.—I take the liberty to forward through the Commandant a
portrait of "Buckley", which I consider to be a very correct
likeness.—J.B.

Unlike his rival, Mr. Batman was not given to newspaper
writing, or we might have been more favoured with his views. He
was essentially a man of action, and not of speech.

These three letters throw much light upon the transactions of
the period, and the character of the man. He was no hypocrite in
his profession of interest in the natives. If we had had more of
the Batman spirit of justice and benevolence the national
conscience would have been more pure and peaceful.

{Page 30}

WHAT THE PRESS SAID OF MR. BATMAN'S VISIT.

Immediately after the return of the
Rebecca the excitement was great in the quiet little
island. The Cornwall Chronicle of Launceston was the first
to give particulars of the visit. No mystery was made of the
proceedings, and there was no necessity for Mr. Fawkner to have
"put a man" upon Mr. Batman. The subjoined article appeared as
early as June 13th, 1835:—

"The Tasmanian Penn, Mr. Batman, arrived yesterday from Port
Phillip, and reached his own home from thence within little more
than forty-eight hours. We are informed that he has purchased
from a tribe of natives about 500,000 acres of land, taking his
boundaries from a short distance in the rear of Port Phillip.
Almost immediately after landing Mr. Batman fell in with a tribe
of forty, who at first evinced a disposition to oppose him, but
after a short parley the natives he had with him effected an
understanding, and he was received by them with open arms, and
every manifestation of good feeling.

"The peaceable disposition shown on the part of the holders of
the new country enabled Mr. Batman to execute the object of his
visit effectually and speedily. A fine, athletic fellow—the
chief of the tribe—after being made acquainted with Mr.
Batman's wish to purchase land, and his means to pay for it,
proceeded with him and his party, accompanied by his tribe, to
measure it off. At each corner boundary the chief marked a tree,
and tabooed it, and at the same time explained to his tribe the
nature of the treaty, and the positive necessity on their part to
observe it inviolable. Mr. Batman was provided with deeds in
triplicate, the nature of which he explained to the chief as the
fashion upon such an occasion in white man's country, who readily
feigned them, and received one to preserve. The payment of the
land in part consisted of 100 blankets, tomahawks, knives, flour,
&c.; and it was mutually agreed, that a certain quantity of
clothing and arms were to be paid each year, the amount of them
about £200 sterling. Mr. Batman reached the hill marked out
by Mr. Hume on his expedition with Howell, and from his outer
boundary he saw an immense tract o open country. He describes the
whole of the land he noticed as being well watered and luxuriant
in kangaroo grass, and so lightly timbered and level
that—to use Mr. Batman's own expression—a horse might
run away with a gig for twenty miles on end without fear of
upsetting from irregularity of the ground.

On the same day, June 13, is a quizzing letter, addressed to
the editor, and signed "Wrangleawee", commencing—

"Sir,—I am happy to inform you that the schooner has
arrived safe from Port Phillip, on the opposite side of the
straits. Mr. Batman has left Mr. Pigeon, commander of the Sydney
blacks (who acted under Black Robinson in catching me blacks
here,) in possession of the territory, amounting to two millions
of acres, which he purchased from one of the natives. The site of
a township has been marked off, to be called 'Batmania', at the
head of Port Phillip, well supplied with a running stream of
fresh water. I have not time to add another line, but I will give
you further particulars in my next."

The Hobart Town Courier of the 26th of June has an
article upon the matter, which, while having a fling at the
romance of the transaction, admits the facts, and is prompt in
acknowledgment of Mr. Batman's efforts:—

"The return of Mr. Batman from his expedition to Port Phillip
with the favourable result of his interview with the aborigines
there, has, we learn, induced above a dozen of our wealthy and
influential capitalists, both here and at Launceston, to join him
in the enterprise. So far as placing sheep on this fine pastoral
country, and bringing it for the first time into a productive
state, and of which this colony will mainly reap the benefit, we
cannot but applaud the measure. The spirited individuals who
embark in it will not only explore and bring out the resources of
a hitherto almost unknown country, but the compact which Mr.
Batman has so wisely made with the original owners of the soil
must, to a great extent, if fairly observed by the whites, have
the most happy effect in maintaining an amicable intercourse
between the graziers and their black associates. Happy had it
been for Van Diemen's Land if the same step had been taken with
the aborigines on its first settlement by the English."

The Rev. Dr. Lang, in spite of his ridicule afterwards of the
treaty, was much struck at the effect of Mr. Batman's visit. Here
is his account in the Port Phillip History.

"Mr. Batman's report as to the capabilities of Port Phillip as
a grazing country was in the highest degree favourable; and that
report having been subsequently confirmed by the testimony of
other credible witnesses, who were afterwards sent across from
Van Diemen's Land on his track, the result was as if the whole
colony of Van Diemen's Land had been suddenly electrified. I
happened to visit that island, on a clerical tour from New South
Wales, in the months of October and November, 1835, when the
excitement was at its height, and, on traversing the island to
and fro between Hobart Town and Launceston, I found almost every
respectable person I met with—either individually or in the
person of some near relative or confidential agent—anxious
to occupy the Australian El Dorado."

This conclusive testimony from the historian, of New South
Wales and Port Phillip ought to satisfy us as to the debt owing
to Mr. Batman, for at the time of the worthy doctor seeing this
excitement from the report of our explorer Mr. Fawkner had not
even seen the Yarra. Who then is the founder of the
colony?

{Page 33}

MR. FAWKNER'S NARRATIVE.

Having heard the Hon. J.P. Fawkner
deliver his celebrated lecture upon "the Reminiscences of Port
Phillip", the same as he has been delivering at various places
for the last four years, I would repeat the leading features
brought forward therein, without, for the present, commenting
upon them.

It would interest some not favoured with a personal knowledge
of the man, to have a description of his appearance. He is small
of stature, and extremely attenuated in form. Bowed with years,
oppressed with a cough, with a few white hairs drooping from
beneath his skull cap, he has that aspect of feebleness and age
which commands at once the reverential respect of the spectator,
and the patient attention of the listener to his weak and
struggling speech. It is only when some remembrance of ancient
wrongs comes up, or the narrative runs into the personal of his
former rivals, that his dull eye quickens into something of its
olden flash of fire, and his voice rises as if to emulate the
vehemence which marked his early oratory. The infirmities of a
frame in its seventy-fifth year soon reduce his enthusiasm, and
lower his tone to whispering weakness. The distressing cough
which follows increases the sympathy of his auditors, and ears
are brought forward with more watchful care to catch the notes,
so precious as they seem.

Apart from the interest of such a man telling his tale of our
new-born history, there is much in Mr. Fawkner to excite the
wonder and pleasure of the thoughtful observer. Without
scholastic instruction, without moral direction, without
hallowing communion, exposed to the worst of influences,
associated in poverty with the degradation of vicious penury, a
workmate of convicts, a sawyer in forests infested with
blood-seeking savages, and subjected to the scorn and injustice
of rampant political despotism, he bears with all, rises through
all, torn with the struggle, and begrimed in the fight, but a man
still with a man's heart—a Carlyle hero in his somewhat
unscrupulous roughness and vital tenacity of self, till he stands
before us now a legislator in the senate of Victoria, one of
means as well as position, a hard worker for the elevation of the
masses, the owner of a noble library, and a friend of mechanics'
institutes, churches, and schools.

But to his story, as he gave it. Telling us of the origin of
the Port Phillip expedition, he introduced his voyage with his
father, mother, and sister. The little fleet called in for
provisions at Cape Town, then in the possession of Holland. The
Dutch Governor requested them to surrender. Captain Woodruff,
putting his frigate in order, returned for answer, "Come and take
us." The pacific commander, who preferred his quiet pipe to the
trumpet of war, finding that the English did not care about
becoming involuntary Cape settlers, permitted the headstrong
people to have their own way. So, after procuring supplies, the
party sailed off. The day after reaching Port Phillip the young
emigrant attained his eleventh year. On the abandonment of the
location, the Fawkner family suffered much on their
month's voyage from the Port Phillip Heads to the
Tasmanian Derwent.

Passing over nearly thirty years of his life, he introduced
the question of our colony. The desire of some to turn Van
Diemen's Land into a large squatter's run, by the passing of the
Impounding Act, was the immediate cause, he told us, of his
taking up the project of a poor man's country elsewhere. He
resolved to recolonise his olden home of Port Phillip, and make
it free for working men. Having seen, on Captain Sturt's map, the
route of Messrs. Hume and Hovell to Geelong, with indications of
the Yarra, he determined to make that river the scene of his
labours.

Wishing to make a tour of inspection, he sought a passage
across the straits by one of Mr. Henty's vessels going to
Portland Bay. Failing in this, he bought the schooner
Enterprise for his purpose. The non-arrival of the craft
from Sydney delayed his trip, and gave time for Mr. Batman to be
first in the field. He then tried to make friends with the
latter, but he refused to admit him into the Association he had
formed. Unable, from sea sickness, to proceed with the
Enterprise on her first voyage, Mr. Fawkner says he gave
the party directions when they went off to Western Port.
Subsequently, towards the end of October, 1835, he became a
settler on the banks of the Yarra, near where the Custom House
now is. He refers with pride to the first crop of wheat raised by
his men, and in the consciousness of how much the Port
Phillippians owe him, exclaimed, "The country is something
indebted to me."

He was very merry upon the subject of Batman's treaty with the
aborigines, and observed that he knew all about the transaction,
for he had "put a man upon him." The lecrurer assured his
audience that he came here to prevent this country being a
squatting station. When he arrived within the bay he went ashore
at the old place by Point Nepean, and there he saw the remains of
chimneys erected in 1803, with casks fixed in the sand to obtain
water.

Reaching the Yarra he discovered that his two men, whom he had
sent two months before, had enclosed ten acres of land, and
obtained a very promising crop. Though the new comers had been
compelled to cross the river for awhile, they were able to make
peace with Henry Batman, then in charge for his brother, by the
timely present of some gin, a fair stock of which had been
forwarded by the Launceston publican. A wonderful story was told
of a supposed attack of the natives, when the lecturer gave a
vivid description of his own warlike preparations, and his shot
into a tree near the mob, which frightened them off. Then he had
something to say of Mr. Wedge, and much about Mr. Batman. He
assured the young people present that both brothers were
dissipated men, and he enlightened them upon the practices of one
in such language as to cause a general titter along the lines of
crinoline. As upon his previous allusions to the first Governor's
exploits with the wives of other people, and the first chaplain
doing ditto, much merriment was manifested. He then added, "Where
are the Batmans now? All vanished from the face of the
earth."

The lecture was a rambling one in its incidents, with a
running commentary upon colonial history.

{Page 36}

ORIGIN OF MR. FAWKNER'S COLONISATION.

The first settlement of this country
was not done in a corner. No secret conclave met to develop the
design. When, as early as 1827, official letters had been
written, and a specific offer upon certain conditions made to the
Sydney Governor, by Messrs. Gellibrand and Batman, the merits of
the case had been well discussed. I have been informed by several
parties of various schemes attempted to be floated relative to
the Port Phillip pastures. The one thing that frightened the
Tasmanian colonists from the venture was the knowledge, procured
from sealers and others, that the land was populous with natives.
The long and bloody war between the settlers and the blacks in
the little island had given the former a wholesome dread of
savage conflicts. Few doubted the story of the green pastures,
but all seemed to pause before a venture with flocks in a lone
country, without governmental protection, and with exposure to
blood-thirsty tribes. When the Messrs. Henty boldly planted a
whaling station at Portland Bay, in 1834, others began to talk
more resolutely.

Need it be wondered, then, that so restless and enterprising a
man as the landlord of the Cornwall Hotel, of Launceston, should
catch the Port Phillip fever, and be foremost in the plot of
colonisation.

In 1853, Mr. Fawkner gives this account of the
movement:—

"Early in the year 1835, the writer of these pages had
arranged in his own mind a plan of colonisation for Port Phillip,
and to enable him to make good his scheme, five residents of
Launceston were taken into his confidence. What strange events
are brought about by small means, and from what a mixed society
of honourable men was this project carried into operation. The
colonisers were six in number:—One ex-editor of the
Launceston Advertiser, John Pascoe Fawkner; one architect
and builder; two cabinetmakers and builders; one plasterer, and
one captain in the merchant service. The most of them possessing
at least a fair average share of common sense, and no little
activity. Each of them brought with them some capital in cash or
stock, and a vast amount of the very best of capital, that
without which no new colony can get on well, viz., hands used to
work, and minds resolved to labour. J.P. Fawkner, in order to
ensure the necessary means of transit to and from Fort Phillip
and Launceston, bought of Mr. John Anderson Brown the schooner
Enterprise, of about 55 tons burthen. But Mr. B.'s agent
had employed this vessel, which had been sent to fetch coals from
Newcastle, in the regular coal trade between Sydney and the coal
mines of Newcastle, and thus the settlement of Port Phillip was
retarded some weeks."

In 1862, he again claims to the merit of the company in
saying, "During March and April I searched out and found five
persons in Launceston willing to venture across with me as their
guide. Their names and occupations were as follows:—1st,
John Lancey, pilot, had commanded one of the colonial vessels;
2nd, Robert Hay Marr, carpenter and builder; 3rd, Samuel Jackson,
architect and builder; 4th, William Jackson, also a carpenter;
and 5th, George Evans, plasterer. As soon as these men had agreed
to join me, I desired my broker, Mr. John Charles Underwood, of
Launceston, to purchase for me a vessel", &c.

When I heard him a few weeks ago give an account of his
adventures, before a public audience, he wished to impress upon
them this great fact, that he had always been an enemy of the
squatters, and that it was because he saw the danger of this fine
country being converted by the Tasmanian squatters into a sheep
walk, he forthwith organised a party of working men to thwart the
intentions of the aristocracy of Van Diemen's Land, and 80
established here a free colony. Certainly, the persons
selected—four mechanics, a pilot, and a publican—were
hardly sufficient to upset the project. Several of these, too,
intended to do the very thing they were supposed to be
formed to prevent—going squatting. There was this
difference, however, between the parties; the gentlemen squatters
were not going to seize the lands without a recognition of the
claims of others, having treated the natives honourably, and
having sought without avail the sanction of Government. On the
other hand, Mr. Fawkner's party were going to rush the country,
use what they chose, do what they pleased with it, without the
acknowledgment of any right but that of force.

One of the so-called party of anti-squatters, Mr. Evans,
assured me that he went with the avowed intention to run sheep.
Out of the six who sought to oppose squatterdom, one died early
at sea, and four at least, including Mr. Fawkner himself,
became squatters.

But let us have another glance at this Launceston company. By
the general tenor of Mr. Fawkner's remarks, it will appear to
have been a co-operative association. Elsewhere he speaks of all
others as his underlings; and even implies that they were his
servants. Incautiously writing about Mr. George Evans, his
daughter thus indignantly denies the slander in the newspaper of
the day, 1863:—"My father came here on his own resources.
He paid his own passage, and that of his servant, Evan Evans. He
was in every way better able to employ Mr. Fawkner than Mr.
Fawkner him." Mr. Evans denies the fact of the association
altogether. The vessel was the private property of Mr. Fawkner,
and the others paid passage for themselves and goods. There is no
evidence that they ever did anything as a company. Each did as he
pleased, and went where he would. In fact, Mr. Fawkner elsewhere
admits that he had two servants, who broke up some land for him
before he came over. After very careful examination of
authorities, I can find no proof of the existence of any such
organisation. It is true that published testimony at a very early
date sanctions this tradition, for Mr. Arden, in his historical
sketch, in 1843, mentions it. "It seems," says he, "that the
success of Mr. Batman quickly raised up imitators of his scheme;
for, as soon as his report reached Launceston, Mr. J.P. Fawkner,
a party well known as the landlord of the Cornwall Hotel, in
Launceston, organised a second company." But this witness will
not be acceptable to our ancient colonist; and the witness and
acts of the supposed members militate against the theory.

There is another to introduce into the box to give
evidence—no less a person than John Batman himself. In a
remarkable letter, the original of which is now lying before me,
there is another and more extended version of this "Association
of Six". The letter is addressed to Mr. John Helder "Wedge, and
was written not many days after his return from his first visit
to Port Phillip, being dated June 18th, 1835. This is the
reference:—

"When in Launceston I had the honour of a call from John
Faulkner, Esq., who said he was only waiting the return of
the ship from Sydney, which he expected hourly, and a great deal
more. He wished to be on good terms with us, and would not in any
way interfere with us, and hoped we should act in the same way
toward him—that was, that we would not encourage his
servants, &c. He offered to take anything I wished down
there, or any person. He further told me he had fourteen families
altogether going down with him, and the rules, &c. &c.
all drawn up and signed by them that each party would take five
to 700 pounds with them. What think you of all this? For my part,
as he goes to the opposite side [Point Nepean,) I think it all
the better for us; the more the better."

How the fourteen families of June fell to six
individuals in August, we know not. One thing is very clear from
this story, that Mr. Fawkner then entertained no such horror of
Mr. Batman and his squatting association as he afterwards
affected to feel. Curiously enough, this attempted fraternisation
referred to in the letter is substantiated in a passing remark by
Mr. Fawkner, that he rode over to Ben Lomond to see Mr. Batman,
and asked to be admitted a member of his party, but was
refused. What, then, becomes of the virtuous ground of his
association, and his own heroism in the cause of the poor man in
opposition to squatterdom?

In a public meeting I heard that gentleman go further back
into the causes prompting his foundation of the colony.
The "Impounding Act" of Van Diemen's Land pressed very harshly
upon the small herdsman, heretofore running a few cows on
unenclosed public grounds without payment. By that act, and the
subsequent seizure of stock, a great reduction in the value of
animals took place, to the loss of the poor and gain of the rich.
This, said Mr. Fawkner, made him resolve to establish a colony
where the rights of the poor should be regarded.

But having had to question the strict accuracy of Mr.
Fawkner's written statements, it is with sincere satisfaction
that I am enabled to support one part of his story, so often
questioned by others. Mr. Arden is only one of many attributing
Mr. Fawkner's presence wholly to the report of Mr. Batman. Even
Mr. Evans would sanction such an interpretation. But as the
historian of the era in question, I feel quite convinced that Mr.
Fawkner had privately resolved to get up a movement for the new
place, and had made arrangements accordingly, before the passage
of the founder of the colony—Mr. John Batman. Though quite
agreeing with Captain Robson and others, that Mr. Batman paved
the way for Mr. Fawkner, I can well believe that the latter's
visit was not wholly formed on the report to the Governor. Here
is evidence to the contrary. It is contained in the Launceston
Advertiser of May 21st, after the sailing of the
Rebecca, but before the return of Mr. Batman:—

"The Enterprise, daily expected from Sydney, will be
immediately laid on for New Holland, to convey an exploring party
of gentlemen to the 'new country.' Mr. Batman, with a number of
attendants, including six Sydney natives, that have some time
resided here, left George Town this week in a small vessel,
commanded by Mr. J.P. Harwood, for the purpose of exploring part
of the same country."

It may be true, as Mr. Newton, his old friend of the early
days, thus expresses it in his letter to me; "I do not think that
Mr. Fawkner was induced to fit out his exploring expedition from
knowledge which may have oozed out from Batman's
followers—aboriginal or European—for I believe that
in those days he knew from the same sources as Batman all that
was to be known of the country of Fort Phillip, and that had
circumstances favoured him, he would probably have been in
Hobson's Bay as soon as Batman, instead of being there a short
time after him."

{Page 41}

WHERE DID MR. FAWKNER INTEND TO SETTLE?

So much has been said of that gentleman
in connection with the Yarra, that the public have been led to
believe that he came over expressly to form a settlement upon
this river. So often and so publicly has he derided the idea of
any other place being suitable for a colony, and so often and so
publicly asserted the claims of his own party directly, and
himself indirectly, for the first and real re-discovery, for
settlement purposes, of the river, that it would appear absurd to
suppose any other site was entertained at all. But what says
history?

Two ideas of place, and, apparently, two only, were prominent
in the mind of Mr. Fawkner:—the site of the old settlement
of 1803, just inside Point Nepean of Port Phillip Heads, and that
of the old settlement of 1826, in Western Port. The first was
abandoned in 1804, after a few months' trial; and the other,
attempted from Sydney, was equally unsuccessful. Both were
convict colonies, under Government control.

It was natural that Mr. Fawkner, who accompanied his father to
Port Phillip in 1803, should like to revisit the old spot.
Doubtless a gleam of ambition stole across his thoughts, that he
might be the successful reviver of a colony so ignominously
deserted. No one could have bestowed more ridicule and contempt
upon an effort than he upon this signal failure. He has shown up
the stupidity of the official plans, the ignorance of the
country, the wilful negligence of the authorities, and the
cowardice of retirement. He has laughed at the selection of
barren sands and waterless wastes, and has in plain terms
asserted that the Governor acted thus to obtain five hundred
pounds' compensation, to be given him by Government if obliged to
change his position. He declares that Colonel Collins only staid
long enough to prove, the unsuitableness of Port Phillip, and
gain information of the banks of the Derwent. And yet this was
the spot in the mind of the reputed Father of Melbourne.

He knew, however, reasons for such a view. In the first place
he saw a powerful confederacy already establishing itself on the
western side of Port Phillip Bay, from the Heads to the Yarra,
with presumed vested interests in the soil, and
believed to be such by himself at that time. This left the
eastern side of the bay free for any one.

But there was another reason.. The presence of Arthur's Seat,
and mounts Martha and Eliza, gave a guarantee of fresh water, the
great desirability, and a promise of tolerable land. I have heard
Mr. Fawkner say that he remembered, as a boy, that the first
settlement got timber from Arthur's Seat, that the vessels
watered at its base, and that the report of good soil there was
credited. There was, therefore, nothing unreasonable in the
selection of Point Nepean side for a colony.

But in-favour of Western Port there were even stronger
arguments. The Launceston men knew much of that district from
sealers, who, though not gifted with farming observations, knew
the virtue of fresh water, and appreciated the general look of a
park-like country. Many years ago, my friend Captain Sinclair
told me of Mr. Griffith's ship Ellen, of Launceston,
sealing in the Straits, going into Western Port as early as 1825,
and shooting wild cattle there. The very abandonment of the
settlement, attempted in 1826, seemed rather favourable than
otherwise to fresh projects. Colonists have not much faith in
such governmental enterprises, and are ready to believe that
their failure arises less from the country's fault than the
management.

There was yet another strong reason. Mr. Fawkner knew that
eight years before this Mr. Batman had got Mr. Gellibrand to join
him in an application to the Sydney Government for permission to
settle at Western Port. Although the government gave no
encouragement, and me project was abandoned, Mr. Fawkner knew
that so good a judge as Mr. Batman was worth following. As,
therefore, he followed in his wake in coming to Port Phillip, he
had intended evidently to have carried out the shrewd Batman's
plans about Western Port. The vessel, therefore, of the
Launceston six parsed over to Western Port. Mr. Fawkner's account
refers not merely to Western Port, but to the Point Nepean side
of our bay."

"The Enterprise was conducted by Captain Hunter, as
master of the vessel, along the southern channel, and the men
landed each day to examine the country from five to ten miles
inland, the vessel only mooring a short distance until they
returned on board, and pushing a few miles further by night, in
order to examine new lands the next day. No eligible spot was
found on the east side of Port Phillip Bay."

This thoroughly coincides with the account given by Mr. George
Evans to me. It clearly proves that there was no intention to
come within the boundaries of the Batman Association. Not until
the party found themselves on the beautiful banks of the Yarra,
after failing everywhere else in finding good land and fresh
water, did they make up their minds to dare the rights of the
others, and seize what they could. But of all this resolution,
Mr. Fawkner was in utter ignorance, as he was then in Launceston,
believing his friends to he, perhaps, in Western Port. For Mr.
Arden, in his History of Port Phillip, says:—"They first
directed their course to Western Port; but as the natives there
were not sufficiently obliging to meet the strangers and sell
them their right of property to the adjacent lands, and as the
country and port were not so inviting as was expected, the
Enterprise bore up for Port Phillip." Captain Robson also
mentions it in his story of the Enterprise:—"She had
been bound to Western Port to form a settlement there, but went
into Port Phillip instead. Mr. Fawkner was not on board."

But Mr. Fawkner himself, in 1853, gave so circumstantially a
statement of this Western Port exploration that it must be
mentioned here:—

"Landing one of his horses at George Town, John Pascoe Fawkner
proceeded overland to Launceston, and the Enterprise
passed over to Western Port. This Western Port was to be
carefully examined by a series of triangular marches each day,
the bay forming the base, and ten mles or more was the distance
they were to march inland, returning from four to five miles
further west, or nearer the West Head, until the whole bay was
examined. They entered Western Port on Saturday, the 8th day of
August, and left it and passed into Port Phillip on Saturday, the
15th day of August. After carefully examining the lands around
Western Port, and giving them up as not likely to form a good
site for any dense population, the Enterprise pushed out
of Western Port on Saturday, the 15th of August."

In 1862, he distinctly writes, "I put the land party and
instructions under the charge of Captain J. Lancey, one of the
six associates, directing them to visit Western Port
first." Mr. Evans assured me that he was about the only one
of the party able to form a judgment upon the character of the
country they surveyed. As he, with the others, contemplated going
sheep farming, that which was looked for was good grass and fresh
water. These not being found, though he is perfectly ignorant
concerning the triangular marches of five or ten miles inland, he
counselled the movement westward to Port Phillip, to the other
proposed place—Point Nepean.

The ultimate choice of the Yarra was an accident of the party,
independent of Mr. Fawkner, unknown to him, and in opposition to
his reputed instructions. He was not, at any rate,
designedly the founder of Melbourne.

{Page 44}

MR. FAWKNER'S STORY OF MR. JOHN HELDER WEDGE.

These two gentlemen are respectively
honourable in their own colonies—the one being a member of
the Victorian Council, and the other of the Tasmanian
Parliament.

The attack upon Mr. Wedge was certainly unprovoked. He had
never crossed the path of the Launceston settler, but had really
advocated a liberal and manly course of treatment towards him.
How far, after the lapse of many years, Mr. Fawkner drew upon his
imagination for the incidents to which he refers so recently, it
is not for the historian to discuss. At the time of penning the
slander the object of it was at a distance, and was living, as he
always had done, the consistent life of an honest and educated
English gentleman.

In 1853 he published the following:—

"On Wednesday, late in the evening, Mr. John Helder Wedge, a
Van Diemen's Land surveyor, came to Melbourne, brought by the
blacks in a whale-boat Mr. Batman had left at Indented Head.
Strange to say, that, although he only came thirty miles and must
have known that he would have to return, he trusted to our
people's hospitality to feed him there and find him food for his
return voyage, although he made the trip in order to warn off our
party. He was also guilty of something very like double dealing;
he got into conversation with Captain Lancey, who had charge from
J.P. Fawkner of the direction of all matters on land concerning
the adventure. Pumping (as it is called) him of all the
occurrences of the trip, and stating that he was only out
overlooking the country, that he was not interested, &c.
&c. Although he was one of the greedy seventeen, he kept up
his tone all the afternoon and the next day, until he had got a
supply of food wherewith to return to the Indented Head, and then
he changed his tone, told Captain Lancey and the other colonists
that he had come expressly to warn them off, as the whole of the
lands of Port Phillip had been bought and paid for by him and his
co-associates (and a pretty medly lot they were) and finished by
handing over to Captain Lancey a written order for him and all
his party to leave their (the company's) landed estate. Captain
Lancey handed the paper back to J.H. Wedge, telling him he might
want such a piece for some necessary occasion, which would be the
fall worth of such a notice, not forgetting to tell him of the
change in his story of the morning for the one at night, taunting
him with his two-faced dealing."

In his "Reminiscences of Port Phillip", delivered as a lecture
between 1862 and the present time, he went into further
particulars, and agreeably entertained his audiences with another
version of the story.

"But Mr. J.H. Wedge, under a pretence of being glad to see
some fellow countrymen, obtained their confidence by pretending
he had nothing to do with Batman or his co-partners. He thus
wormed out the plan of proceeding of our party, obtaining ample
refreshments for himself and boat's crew; and, after stopping one
or more nights, upon going away, he handed to Captain Lancey, as
manager, a written notice. Sorry I am that Captain Lancey did not
retain it; it would have been a curiosity. Now, in this notice,
he warned onr party off the land, claiming the whole country for
himself and brother squatters. Lancey's reply was more brusque
than polite. He told him to take it with him when next he had
occasion for waste paper, adding, 'You are no gentleman, whatever
your claims may be, for you distinctly lied to us yesterday. If
what this paper conveys is true, you distinctly stated that you
were not concerned in the company, obtained food for the time,
and a supply to enable you to return to the Heads; and here you
distinctly deny your yesterday's assertion, and after serving
your turn of want out of our resources, you order us off the
waste lands of this free country. Tell your confederates that
Jack Lancey and his party treat your pretensions with contempt;
and now be off, for fear your untruthful conduct tempts us to
give you the deserts your lying tongue deserves.'"

This elaborate and circumstantial account requires a few
observations. How strange it appears that Mr. Lancey should be so
ignorant of Mr. Wedge, or so credulous of his tale, when he knew
that the day before the Enterprise sailed, one of the
association ships went out of the same harbour of Launceston,
having on board thereof Mr. Wedge, as the recognised surveyor, in
company with Mr. John Batman's brother Henry, and a full
complement of working men, &c. How strange, too, that Mr.
Fawkner should speak thus of one of the best-known members of
that association of squatters, to oppose whose grasping policy,
Mr. Fawkner says, was his main object in getting up his own
little opposition party.

Mr. Fawkner, at the best, only goes by hearsay. Let us, then,
take the word of one of the principals in the affair, Mr. Wedge
himself. In one of his letters to me, dated May 24, 1856, he thus
calmly and gentlemanly replies to Mr. Fawkner's
charges:—

"They", alluding to some documents forwarded to me, "will show
the degree of credit that is to be attached to that gentleman's
statement, that I had exhibited a hostile feeling toward him. I
should have allowed it to pass for what it was worth without
notice, only that I think it due to the late Mr. Lancey to say
that I experienced nothing from him but politeness and civility,
and no coarse expression of the nature imputed to him by Mr.
Fawkner was made use of in my hearing; and from my recollection
of Mr. Lancey, I do not believe that he was capable of such gross
vulgarity.

"Now that the subject is brought to my recollection, I believe
that I did, either by writing or verbally, communicate to Mr.
Lancey that he had encamped on a portion of the land ceded, or
then supposed to have been ceded, to the association to which I
belonged by Mr Batman's treaty with the natives; and, in doing
this, I believe that I expressed the hope that he would not
interfere with us, and referred to the unoccupied land on the
opposite bank of the river, as affording ample scope for the
enterprise of himself and party. He took the communication in
good part, and apparently assented to the propriety of my
suggestion, and I think he said he would write to Mr. Fawner upon
the subject. I do not profess to state the precise words that
were made use of by me on the occasion; but I can and do assert
that in making the communication, it was with no unfriendly
feeling toward Mr. Fawkner and his coadjutors."

"Before I conclude these remarks, there is one subject
referred to by Mr. Fawkner which I will briefly advert to. That
gentleman, it seems, has stated that I came down to warn them
off, after seeing them come in; that I feasted at their expense
on the Yarra, got provisions for my trip back, and then in a
two-faced way turned round upon them, and ordered them off,
&c. &c. What I have already said respecting my interview
with Mr. Lancey will show the degree of credit due to Mr.
Fawkner's statement in reference to what then occurred, and I
have no hesitation in saying that his assertion—that I came
down to warn them off, after seeing them come in—is
incorrect, and altogether a misapprehension on his part. I had
not the least idea, nor a suspicion, of the arrival of Mr.
Lancey's vessel in the port; nor was I aware of such fact having
occurred until my arrival on the present site of the city of
Melbourne, as I ex plained to you in my former letter. I am glad
of the opportunity of recording my thankfulness for the
friendliness evinced by the late Mr. Lancey by his hospitably
supplying me and my small party with a meal and some provisions,
to enable us to return by a circuitous route to my encampment at
Indented Head."

But still further to show the baseless character of the
charges brought by Mr. Fawkner, I give an extract from one of Mr
Wedge's letters, written to me February 23rd, 1856, he then being
wholly ignorant of the shameful slander so publicly and
shamelessly made. Written when unconcious of what Mr. Fawkner had
said of him, the language displays a kindly feeling towards the
rival expedition, and bears a simple truthfulness upon the very
face of it.

"The last journey I made was for the express purpose of
ascertaining where the principal rivers discharged themselves
into Port Phillip, with the view to determine the most eligible
site for a permanent establishment. It was with no little
surprise, on arriving at the place where Melbourne now stands,
that I observed in the basin, just below where the Prince of
Wales's Bridge spans the Yarra Yarra with its noble arch, a
vessel quietly and securely moored. The sight was so unexpected
mat at the moment I fancied I had come upon an unknown
settlement; and it was with no little interest and anxiety that I
advanced to introduce myself to the party in charge of the craft.
It turned out to be a vessel (I believe the Enterprise)
belonging to Mr. Fawkner, which he had sent thither in charge of
Mr. Lancey, to form an establishment, on the strength of Mr.
Batman's favourable report of the country.

"She had crept into the Port, and proceeded up the Yarra
Yarra, unobserved either by the party left at Indented Head by
Mr. Batman, or by the tribe of natives who were also encamped
with them. The Enterprise (if that washer name) was
certainly the first vessel that had ever worked her way up to
where the Queen's Wharf has since been built. It was on this
occasion I gave the river the name of 'Yarra Yarra', from the
following circumstance:—On arriving in sight of the river,
the two natives who were with me, pointing to the river, called
out, 'Yarra Yarra', which, at the time, I imagined to be its
name; but I afterwards learnt that the words were what they used
to designate a waterfall, as they afterwards gave the same
designation to a small fall in the river Werribee, as we crossed
it on our way back to Indented Head."

"On my return to my head quarters, I immediately broke up the
establishment, and removed it to the north bank of the Yarra
Yarra, and encamped, if not at the very place, not far from where
St. James's Cathedral now stands."

Having received a letter from the Hon. J.H. Wedge, dated
Leighland, Tasmania, Nov. 16, 1866, I am able to give a
reiterated detail of the facts. It is in reply to Mr. Fawkner's
lecture.

"There is some truth mixed with misrepresentation in what he
says of myself, the latter very much predominating. I had neither
a boat nor boat's crew with me, having travelled by land from
Indented Head round by Geelong, passing to the west of Station
Peak, crossing the Werribee a little to the southward of Mount
Cotterell, the Saltwater river about a mile above the flow of the
tide, and then straight to the present site of Melbourne; so it
is obvious that I had no boat's crew. In fact, my party consisted
of only one white man, two Sydney natives, and two of the Fort
Phillip aborigines. I never pretended that I had nothing
to do with Batman and his party in my interview with Mr. Lancey.
As to 'worming out the plan of the proceedings of the party, I
was not then, nor am I now aware that there was anything to 'worm
out.' I took it for granted that their plan was to take
possession of land as squatters. I received nothing but civility
from Mr. Lancey; he receiving in good part the written paper I
gave him, explaining that Batman had secured the land on the
north side of the Yarra from the natives, and requested him not
to interfere with it. I believe it was on this occasion that Mr.
Lancey told me that they were going to take possession of land on
the south side of the Yarra. There was certainly no bad feeling
evinced by Mr. Lancey by the use of such language, as imputed to
him by Mr. F. In fact, it is purely the invention of hie own
refined mind!"

{Page 50}

THE CAPTAIN'S STORY.

The most important testimony of a
living witness has rust been finished me by my talented
friend—the Rev. R.K. Ewing, Presbyterian minister,
Launceston. At my request, lie got the subjoined account from
Captain Robson, the then mate of the vessel that brought our
hero, John Batman, to these shores. The clergyman prefaces the
story with these remarks:—"The following statement was made
to me by Robert Robson, on 27th September, 1866. I wrote it from
his dictation. No questions were put by me. I let him tell his
tale in his own way. Before he began I merely gave him directions
to introduce nothing round-about, and in as few words as possible
to give me what he knew of the time and circumstances connected
with the late Mr. Batman's visit to Port Phillip (now
Victoria.")

As this tale is told thirty years after the transaction
recorded, allowance must be made for some lapse or corruption of
memory. No one, perhaps, could defy critical examination of a
relation made so long a period after date. With this apology, let
the captain have his simple story.

"I left in the Rebecca, in April, 1835, from Launceston
for Port Phillip. On board were some Sydney natives, three white
men called Alexander Thomson, James Gumm and William Todd. Mr.
Batman was on board. The vessel was chartered by him for six
months. She was twenty-three tons. The crew consisted of four men
and myself. I was mate, and afterwards master of her. At this
time, Mr. Fawkner had not visited Port Phillip, as * * *
*
We reached Port Phillip about the very end of April or the
beginning of May, and first landed on Indented Head, near
Queenscliffe. We saw many footprints in the direction of-where
Geelong now is, to which place we went first. In beating up to
Geelong at night, we saw a fire—that is, we went on board
after seeing the footprints, and beat up to Koria (Corio) Bay
that night, landed at two o'clock in the morning up to our middle
in water. Batman and I. We reached the native fire before
daylight, but the natives had gone. The next day Batman tried to
cross the Barrabool Hills, but was driven back by a hailstorm.
There were forty-two natives at Geelong, all women and children,
who told us all the men had gone up the country to a fight. We
went on board again, and brought up at Williamstown, that is,
where it now is. We landed next day, in the morning, at the upper
side of Saltwater Creek, three white men, the Sydney natives, and
Batman, who carried his swag the same as the rest, all armed.
They were away five days and could not find the natives, and
returned on board. We stood out in the bay to see if we could see
any smoke; saw some; took bearings and landed next morning. The
second day after the landing saw an old man and woman. We caught
them, gave them presents, and in about two hours they showed us
the natives, about five or six hundred. The natives yelled,
showed fight, and tried to surround us. The old man and woman
spoke to them, and they at once put up their spears in a heap.
Batman then made friends with them, and remained two nights with
them. He came on board again with the shore party. We entered the
Yarra, and watered near where Melbourne now is; then sailed for
Indented Head, intending to make the settlement where Melbourne
now is as soon as Batman could get more persons there. We left
three white men, four blacks, a whaleboat, and stores, with
instructions to build a sod-hut, loopholed and roofed with sods,
and to be kind to the natives and allow them provisions—a
pound a-day. Buckley then came. He had heard in Western Port
white men were there, and made his way round. This was after
Batman had sailed for Launceston, after leaving the men, and food
and boat. We returned to Port Phillip in about three weeks, and
took in a large quantity of fruit trees; landed at Indented Head.
We took over also about thirty men. We left Launceston this time,
I think, about latter part of June, 1835. Henry Batman and family
were with us. He was to be managing man on shore. Batman was to
go the trip on Indented Head. We landed all we had, and came back
to Launceston. We saw Buckley on this visit; he had then left the
natives and taken up with the whites. After landing what we had
on Indented Head, we left for Launceston; and during our passage
the Enterprise entered Port Phillip Heads, She had been
bound to Western Port, to form a settlement there, but went to
Port Phillip instead. Mr. Fawkner was not on board. He had heard
from Batman himself about the glowing country of Port Phillip.
The master of the Enterprise, Mr. Hunter, had heard from
myself the particulars of the Yarra, and about fresh water. About
a month after we went over again; Mr. J.H. Wedge was with us at
this time. We removed Mr. Batman and other persons, and property,
and a number of natives, from Indented Head to where Melbourne
now is. Mr. Fawkner and his men were there then. The natives we
took off from Indented Head were the first they had seen. Batman
put up a hut on the rising ground on the western side of the
river, at some distance from the bank. Fawkner had a hut not far
off on the same hill. All my personal knowledge of Mr. Batman on
the voyage I had with him, the landing of natives, and exploring,
was this: of a kind-hearted, heroic, and truthful man. BATMAN
PAVED THE WAY FOR FAWKNER, and it was the knowledge of water,
from Batman and party, they got, which induced Fawkner to try the
Yarra. He knew nothing of it till he heard of it from Batman and
his party. Henry Batman and Fawkner quarrelled at the trickery of
Fawkner in taking advantage of the information he had got, and
going to the Yarra, when Batman was preparing on me Indented Head
to go and form the settlement where Melbourne now is. He had
waited, after having been, as I have said, up the Yarra, at
Indented Head to get the party.
* * * * He wanted more strength, so as to be safe from the
natives, before he settled down and left Indented Head.

(Signed) "ROBERT ROBSON."

"I hereby testify that the foregoing statement I wrote from
the declaration of Captain Robson; that I did not prompt him by
asking any leading questions; that I let him tell his own tale;
that he is a person of good character, usually regarded as a man
of truth; that he is a very intelligent man, and that his manner
bore all the appearance, in telling his tale, of earnestness and
veracity.

"R.K. EWING, Presbyterian Minister.

"Launceston, 27th Sept., 1866."

{Page 53}

MR. GEORGE EVANS IN MELBOURNE.

Having had several conversations with
this aged pioneer of the colony, I feel no hesitation in saying
that his honest-looking countenance, his frank simplicity, and
his general consistency of narrative would strongly incline one
to faith in his tale of the past.

The old man has evidently sought a quiet and unobtrusive
career; and, without the qualifications for public dignity, has
had the sound sense to pursue the even tenor of his way. This
very placidity, so removed from ambitious resolves, has kept his
name from becoming a household word in Melbourne, on whose
primitive soil he erected the First Hut of
Civilisation.

Our worthy is no juvenile. Sixty-five years ago he fought
under the victorious flag of Nelson, at Copenhagen, and having
known Colonel Arthur at home, he was led to follow that gentleman
when placed as Governor of Van Diemen's Land. As a mechanic, he
naturally took to his trade upon arrival in the Isle of
Beauty. He was a bricklayer, as Buckley, the Wild White Man,
had been. An industrious and prudent man, he gradually prospered.
In that aboriginal period of colonial history cash was not very
plentiful, and George Evans found himself with a nice flock of
sheep, besides sundry cows and horses, taken in barter for
labour. Through the influence of Major Abbott, commonly called
Judge, the Commandant of Launceston, he procured a free grant of
land on which to depasture his woolly charge. But he, like many
others, deploring the want of more extensive grass in the island
of rock and scrub, sighed for fresh meadow lands.

It was at this time that Mr. Batman went on his interesting
mission to Port Phillip. Others had hoped there might be a
sheep country across the straits, but he had the courage and
enterprise to go and see. Some leered at him for his folly
or smiled at his simplicity; but all waited with avowed or secret
interest the return of the bold adventurer.

It was early in Jane, 1835, that a company met, as usual, to
gossip in the parlour of the "Cornwall Hotel", in Launceston,
while discussing the good liquor of the landlord, Mr. John Pascoe
Fawkner. George Evans was among the number. All at once John
Batman walked into the room. Throwing up his arms, he exclaimed,
"I am the greatest landowner in the world." Seating himself in
the midst, he told Mr. Fawkner and his customers the story of his
trip to Port Phillip, his discovery of magnificent pastures, and
his large purchase of land from the natives.

Such a story of an Eldorado had never before burst upon the
colonial ear. No wonder then that our bricklaying friend turned
to the landlord and cried, "Well, Fawkner, what do you say about
going to Port Phillip?" Others were equally smitten, and two
respectable tradesmen, Messrs. Samuel and William Jackson, agreed
to join the other two in the venture. Mr. Fawkner had got a small
ship for about £150, and determined to go with two working
men in his employ. Mr. Evans engaged a servant man, one Evan
Evans, who subsequently had the honour of making the first pair
of boots for Buckley after his release from the blacks. A
blacksmith was to be, the only favoured man to take a wife, the
pair being engaged by the spirited landlord.

No partnership existing, each was to pay for his passage in
the Enterprise, and also was to render mutual assistance.
Mr. Fawkner hoped for trade in the forthcoming settlement, and
Mr. Evans sought a run for his flock. Captain Lancey went in the
interest of Mr. Fawkner, but Captain Hunter was responsible for
the vessel. Three sailors and the wife of one man (the
blacksmith) accompanied the party.

They left Launceston, sailing slowly up the Tamar. On arriving
off George Town, they found the sea rather rough, and the wind
decidedly contrary. Mr. Fawkner was seriously inconvenienced by
the motions of the little craft, and entreated to be pot ashore.
The others objected to the delay, but the captain, obedient to
command, respected the orders of the owner, and ran back to land.
Putting off immediately they bade farewell to their mate, who,
throwing up his arms, gave his parting blessing and direction in
these words, "Go on, my lass, do the best you can, but look out
for fresh water."

On went the adventurers, and gained the opposite land of New
Holland. When creeping up Port Phillip Bay, they were hailed by a
boat which put off from Indented Head, and Henry Batman, in the
absence of his brother, gave the intruders orders to move off
from the new company's territories. To the question, "Where are
you going to?" they returned the simple reply of, "We don't know
ourselves." Evans and others were for going on; but the prudent,
quiet Captain Hunter was for peace and retirement. Turning to his
companions, he said, "I have often been into Western Port
gathering bark, let us go there and be first settlers."
Accordingly, they turned towards the ocean again, and entered
Western Port. Mr. Evans, whose object was squatting, saw the soil
would never suit his purpose, and the grass was poor and coarse.
That place would never do. The gentle Hunter yielded to the
pressure, and agreed to run the blockade of Port Phillip, and
dispute the monopoly of our fair pastures.

They looked on the east and on the west, but did not like the
country. They reached, at last, the point we now call
Williamstown, and anchored. Getting out the whale-boat, and going
ashore, the rocky appearance of the places again disheartened
them. But there was Saltwater River, and they may do better
there. The soil pleased them, but the parting injunction of Mr.
Fawkner about freshwater made them turn reluctantly and
disappointed to the ship. Next day Evans and some others resolved
to follow up the other stream which made a junction with the
Saltwater River. After rowing a few miles between the mangrove
banks, they sighted the beautiful rises of Melbourne, Batman's
Hill, and Emerald Hill, with glorious pastures in the flats
below. Better than all, a reef of rocks ran across the river,
stayed the advances of the salt tide, and gave these weary
mariners a delicious draught of fresh water. "Here," said they,
"is the very place, and here we will stay." With the aid of their
two boats they brought the Enterprise up the Yarra, and
laid quietly beside what is now the wharf of Melbourne.

The joyful news must be carried home at once to Launceston.
Captain Lancey was to stay with Mr. Fawkner's two men in charge
of Mr. Fawkner's interests. Mr. George Evans and his
man—Evan Evans—remained also. Mr. Marr, a publican,
returned to look after his business. While the others were
content with a tent, Evans, as a builder, resolved to have a
house. They constructed a sod hut. While putting on the grass for
a roofing, a herald appeared. "What do you here?" was the cry. "I
have as good a right here as you", was the reply. "But," added
Mr. Surveyor Wedge, "all this land belongs to John Batman and the
association. I go by the chart." "Well, and I go by the chart",
said George, meaning the ship's chart. "But come along, old
fellow," continued he, "come and have a bit of bread and cheese
and a drop of grog." The entertainment followed. They separated
as friends, though the surveyor gave the party written notice to
quit, and Henry Batman came across and erected on Batman's Hill
his post of observation over against the intruders.

All knew now that there would be a rush to this land of
promise, already, in imagination, flowing with milk and honey.
Our friend George prepared to start back to get his sheep from
the island colony. One of the association's crafts was returning
for stock, but would not suffer such a Jonah as he to have a
passage. He was forced to wait, but not long, for the brave news
had caused a regular stampede for Fort Phillip. Every one who had
a few pounds and some sheep hasted with a tub of a vessel across
the Canaan. In one of these little schooners Mr. Evans got safely
home again.

Now came more adventures to the Original Yarra Settler,
An English brig, the Chili, arrived from London, was
engaged to carry stock, partly by Messrs. Jackson and Evans and
partly by Batman's Association. Just leaving the port, a vessel
came in from Europe. The captain of the Chili, expecting
important news, turned right about for his letters, and in his
haste and ignorance ran upon some bank. To lighten the ship, the
sheep were pitched overboard, and many were drowned in the
attempt to reach the shore. When the brig was extricated from her
perilous position, the bricklayer-cum-squatter got away
with his little flock.

On arrival at the Yarra he found a great change. The land at
the foot of Batman's hill had been ploughed and sown by Mr
Fawkner's men; and, by the time of that gentleman's first
appearance here, a fine crop greeted his eyes.

Then began the famous fend of Batman and Fawkner. Evans and
the others sought the country pastures. But the two opposing
chiefs remained in strife. One sought to retain his assumed
possession by right of treaty with the natives, on half of the
Port Phillip Association. The other, with an eye to business, in
conveying goods and passengers to and fro from the point, now
Williamstown, resolved to stay. However, hostilities were
suspended a while by the payment of twenty pounds compensation.
For this Mr. Fawkner abandoned his claim to the northern shore,
relinquished his crops, and retired to the south side, where he
at once drove in the plough and raised wheat on the flat by
Emerald Hill; though seeing afterwards that others braved the
Batman rights, he crossed again, and put up his hut in
Melbourne.

Such is the story told me by the old settler. Other
information obtained from him may be seen in the author's work on
the life of "Buckley, the Wild White Man."

{Page 57}

MR. SAM[S]'S PART IN THE SETTLEMENT.

Having received a communication from
the worthy and respected Under-Sheriff of Launceston, William
Jardine Sams, Esq., giving his story of the Port Phillip
enterprise, I gladly lay it before the public. Though the
circumstances may appear both homely and trivial, all who value
historical truth will appreciate a record, even of the domestic
character, which will throw light upon the beginning of our
colony. How much before this Mr. Batman had thought of the affair
Mr. Sams stays not to inquire; his purpose is to speak of his own
connection with the movement. Here is the tale.

"At the latter end of the year 1834 the late Mr. John Batman,
who was then the owner of a very fine estate in this colony,
'Kingston', near Ben Lomond (a mountain 5019 feet high,) invited
a party of friends to his house, I being of the number We there
found that preparations had been made for an excursion to ascend
Ben Lomond, and on the summit of that majestic mountain to pass
the last night of the year 1834 and welcome the sun's rising on
the new year. Three or four days were to be occupied in the
excursion, preparations for our comfort and enjoyment having been
previously made by our kind host, aided by a party of New South
Wales natives, ten or twelve of whom had been brought from Sydney
by Mr. Batman, and were domiciliated on his estate. On the second
day the party gained the top of the mountain with the exception
of Mr. Batman, who had stayed behind at a resting place,
two-thirds of the way up the mountain, with three or four of his
natives, his youngest child and its nurse (all his children,
eight in number, were of the party) intending to follow us up,
after having rested awhile. When the sun was fast sinking, and we
were anxiously expecting Mr. Batman, two sable messengers
arrived, bearing a note from their master to Mrs. Batman, the
purport of which was to inform her that he had been seized with
illness, and requested her to go to him. Wherefore Mrs. Batman
immediately left the party, I accompanying her, guided by the two
natives, who each carried a fire stick, the night being very
dark. After a long and perilous descent we reached the
resting-place, and there happily found Batman comparatively well,
he having been attacked with cramp in the stomach, which had so
seriously alarmed him as to induce the summons for his wife.

"A fire having been lighted a short distance from the camping
ground, where Mrs. Batman, with the child and its nurse passed
the night. Batman and I sat by the fire, whiling the time away in
conversation on our several prospects in the colony. It was then
that I first heard Fort Phillip spoken of as a desirable place
for a settlement, Batman telling me that when he was in Sydney he
had heard from a schoolfellow (Hamilton Hume, who with Captain
Hovell, had explored the neighbourhood of Port Phillip) that the
country there was of the finest description, and that this
information had dwelt on his mind, and made him anxious to verify
the truth or otherwise of the report. It then occurred to me to
suggest the formation of a company, in order that the expenses
incidental to the exploration should be light, when borne by a
number. This idea was at once agreed upon, and forthwith
proceeded with.

"The following are the names associated:—*John Batman,
Charles Swanston, Joseph Tice Gellibrand, James Simpson, John and
William Robertson, *John Helder Wedge, *Anthony Cotterell, George
Mercer, Thomas Bannister, *Henry Arthur, John Sinclair, John
Thomas Collicott, Michael Connelly, and *William Jardine Sams.
(Those names at which I have placed a * were of the party on the
mountain.) Batman very shortly after began to make preparations
for the expedition, and on the 12th May, 1835, he sailed for
Launceston on board the schooner Rebecca, taking with him
three white men and seven of his New South Wales natives. I
accompanied them a few miles down the river."

"On landing he came to my house. It was then evening. I very
naturally looked to be informed of the results of the expedition,
but Batman would not satisfy my curiosity that night, except on
the condition that I accompanied him home, which I did. We
arrived there about three o'clock in the morning, after a
frightful ride of upwards of thirty miles through-incessant rain
and darkness, much of the way by wild bush tracks. After having
changed our wet clothes and taken refreshment, Batman then
related the whole of his proceedings from the day of his
departure, referring from time to time to his diary."

This account I esteem greatly, because derived from a
gentleman of methodical, official habits, keeping notes, and
accustomed to observe with intelligence, and express with caution
and exactness. He possessed educational advantages not favoured
to George Evans, and his recital is, therefore, more valuable for
its precision.

{Page 59}

THE PORT PHILLIP ASSOCIATION.

About this celebrated company that
established, through Mr. Batman, the colony of Port Phillip, now
Victoria, some obscurity of origin is to be noted. All admit that
John Batman was the ruling spirit—the moving soul of the
adventure; but a difference exists as to the proportion of credit
due to other members. Mr. ex-Sheriff Sams, of Launceston, talking
with our hero about the trip when going up Ben Lomond. Mr. Wedge
had made definite arrangements as soon as any, perhaps. Mr.
Robertson of Hobart Town, now of Colac, in a drive one day, urged
Batman to prompt and decisive action, and that before the
arrangements for the Dutigalla Association were formed.

No formal engagement took place until after Mr. Batman's
return from Port Phillip, in June, 1835. Even then the
Association seemed active only to procure, if possible.
Government sanction to their contemplated movement. With this
view, Mr. Gellibrand rew up what is called Mr. Batman's account
of his visit, extracted from, and manufactured out of, the
explorer's simple story in his journal; and this well-prepared
letter was duly laid before the Governor. Armed with it, also,
the deputation of Messrs. Gellibrand, Batman, &c., went to
Sydney to seek the aid of the king's representative there.

The Association addressed the following letter to Lord
Stanley, then principal Secretary for me Colonies. Without space
for the whole correspondence, room must be made for this first
and most interesting document:—

"Hobart Town, 27th June, 1835.

"My Lord,—We have the honour of enclosing copy of a
report made by Mr. Batman, to his Excellency Governor Arthur,
detailing the result of an expedition conducted at our joint
expense, to Port Phillip, on the south-eastern extremity of New
Holland, for the purpose of effecting a conciliatory intercourse
with the native tribes in that part of the country, and
afterwards of purchasing from the chiefs, upon equitable
principles, a portion of that territory for pastoral and
agricultural purposes.

"We are fully persuaded that the perusal of that report will
clearly demonstrate that an intercourse has been established by
our means, which promises the most happy and philanthropic
results, and that the portion of the country granted to Mr.
Batman, as our representative, has been obtained upon terms more
equitable and just to the aboriginal possessors of the soil than
any which the history of the British plantations can produce.

"We have not contented ourselves with merely purchasing the
land in the first instance; but we have reserved to the chiefs an
annual tribute for ever, of the value of at least £200. By
means of this annual tribute the friendly intercourse with the
natives must, of necessity be kept up, and will lead to gradual
civilisation.

"This tract of country is some hundred miles beyond the
jurisdiction of New South Wales, but within the imaginary lines
leading from the Australian Bight to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and
which define the limits of Australia.

"We might, therefore, have contented ourselves with this
treaty with the aboriginal tribes, and quietly have taken
possession of this land, without any official notice either to
the British or Colonial Government; but, in the first instance,
we were desirous of communicating the happy results which have
attended the intercourse with the natives; and, in the next
place, of at once apprising His Majesty's Government of the
nature of the grants which have been obtained, and the terms
under which the land has been granted, because we feel confident
that, having obtained from the chiefs of the tribes—who are
in fact the owners of the soil—a title based upon equitable
principles, the Crown will, under your Lordship's advice,
relinquish any legal point of constructive right to the land in
question, especially as the destruction of our title would be
taking away from the natives the tribute which is thus secured to
them for ever.

"We therefore with confidence appeal to your Lordship to
advise the Crown to grant to us such rights as the Crown may be
advised that it possesses to the tract of land in question, upon
such equitable principle as your Lordship may conceive the
justice of the case requires.

"We have the honour to be, &c.,

"G. Swanston.

John Thomas Collicott.

T.T. Gellibrand.

John H. Wedge.

W.J. Sams.

John Sinclair.

T.& W. Robertson.

Anthony Cotterell.

James Simpson.

Henry Arthur.

Thomas Bannister.

Michael Connelly.

John Batman.

George Mercer.

In the meanwhile rival companies were forming to reap where
Mr. Batman had sown. One, at least, in Hobart Town, and one, with
Mr. Fawkner, in Launceston, together with many individuals, were
prepared, and hasting away to the Elysian fields. Still pursuing
then their correspondence, the Association rushed at last to the
work of colonisation, and despatched surveyor, architect,
workmen, flocks, and material to the scene. Mr. John Helder Wedge
was surveyor and manager, as well as partner. The really esteemed
and deeply lamented Dr. Thomson, late of Geelong, was the first
catechist and doctor.

Much odium has been cast upon these gentlemen, especially by
Mr. Fawkner, who calls them a grasping set of squatters, anxious
to make Port Phillip what they had made of Van Diemen's
Land—a sheep-walk for their own special benefit.

Let us look at this charge. So far from being squatters,
almost all of them were professional men, tradesmen, or officials
of Government. That they sought to procure land in an unoccupied
country was a crime with which Mr. Fawkner stands equally
chargeable. That they sought to benefit themselves by such an
undertaking was no less a fact than the intentions of that same
gentleman. But there the parallel ceases. The Association desired
to act with deference to the laws; the Launceston party in
defiance of them. The Association honourably and openly applied
for official countenance and leave; the others heeded nothing of
authority. The Association tacitly acknowledged the rights of the
Crown in their appeal to Government; the rest were resolved to
own no such loyalty. The Association, with chivalrous and
righteous care, paid homage to native rights in the soil; the
Fawkner party grasped and divided lots without a thought of such
equity. The Association, with all their interestedness, provided
for the welfare of the aborigines, and contemplated their
advancement to civilisation and Christianity; the others derided
such folly, and were bent only upon their own selfish purposes of
aggrandisement and wealth.

Mr. Fawkner has chosen to stigmatise these gentlemen as
creatures of Governor Arthur, and as carrying out his policy. He
holds them forth—more especially Mr. Batman—as
toadies of the Government. That they were so cruelly disappointed
in their hopes by the coldness and opposition of the officials is
not the best evidence of their being creatures of the great
authorities. Mr. Fawkner has again and again declared that
Colonel Arthur was a shareholder, and that in the name of his
lady, who afterwards sold her share to Mr. Mitchell. Tasmanian
newspapers strongly deny the Governor's interest in the
speculation. Certainly he took very little pains to get common
justice done for the Association by the Home Government. The
colonel's nephew—a personal friend of Mr.
Batman's—was a shareholder.

Elsewhere, in the "Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip",
the reader can refer to the interesting correspondence between
the Government and the Association. From the first, the latter
were disowned by the authorities, and ultimately had to yield
their pretensions. Their treaty with the natives of Port Phillip
was held invalid. It is easy to see why an arrangement with the
feeble tribes of Australia should be worthless and improper,
while that with the warlike and numerous Maories should be valued
and acknowledged. Mr. Melville, in his authentic work on
Australasia, admits the good offices of the Association, but
shows how ready others were to take advantage of their
enterprise, and ride upon their failure. "They had, it is true,
no right according to English law to any possession, consequently
others residing in Van Diemen's Land, learning how well adapted
me place was for sheep-farming, followed their example, and
before long a whole tribe of settlers poured down with their
flocks and herds."

The first trouble of the Association came from Sydney. It was
the following positive prohibition of proceedings.

PROCLAMATION.

"By His Excellency Major-General Sir Richard Bourke, K.C.B.,
commanding His Majesty's forces, Captain-General and
Governor-in-Chief of the Territory of New South Wales and its
Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c. &c.

"Whereas it hath been represented to me that divers of His
Majesty's subjects have taken possession of lands of the Crown,
within the limits of this Colony, under the pretence of a treaty,
bargain, or contract, for the purchase thereof, with the
aboriginal natives, now, therefore, I, the Governor, in virtue
and in exercise of the power and authority in me vested, do
hereby proclaim and notify to all His Majesty's subjects and
others, whom it may concern, that every such treaty, bargain and
contract, with the aboriginal natives, as aforesaid, for the
possession, title or claim, to any lands lying and being within
the limits of the Government of the Colony of New South Wales, as
the same are laid down and defined by His Majesty's Commission,
that is to say, from the Northern Cape, or extremity of the
coast, called Cape York, in the latitude of 10 degrees 37 minutes
south, to the southern extremity of the said territory of New
South Wales, or Wilson's Promontory, in the latitude of 39
degrees ½ min. south, and embracing all the country inland
to the westward, as far as the 129th degree of east longitude,
reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich, including all the
islands adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, within the latitude
aforesaid, and including also Norfolk Island, is void, as against
the rights of the Crown; and that all persons who shall be found
in possession of any such lands as aforesaid, without the license
or authority of His Majesty's Government, for such purpose first
had and obtained, will be considered as trespassers, and liable
to be dealt with in like manner as other invaders upon the vacant
lands of the Crown within the said Colony.

"Given under my hand and seal, at Government House, Sydney,
this 26th day of August, 1835.

(Signed,) "RICHARD BOURKE.

(By His Excellency's command)

(Signed,) "ALEXANDER M'LEAY.

"GOD SAVE THE KING!"

In the meantime the Association sought the opinion at the
highest legal authorities in Britain, as to the validity of their
treaty with the aborigines. Mr. Burge was then considered the
best counsel upon colonial law, and to him, as well as to Messrs.
Pemberton and Follet, the question was referred.

After the citation of a number of cases, chiefly in connection
with English treaties with the American Indians, we have the
following:—

"I am of opinion that the Crown can legally oust the
Association from their possession. The enterprise manifested by
the expedition, the respectability of the parties engaged in it,
and the equitable and judicious manner in which they conducted
the intercourse with the native tribes, and made their purchase,
afford a strong ground for anticipating that the Crown would, in
conformity with its practice on other occasions, on a proper
application, give its sanction to, and confirm the purchase which
the Association has made. Lord Hardwicke, in the case which has
been referred to, expressed a very strong opinion that the
possession of persons making these settlements ought to receive
the fullest protection. There is no ground for considering that
the lands comprised in this purchase are affected by the Act
erecting South Australia into a Province, 4 and 5 W. IV., c. 75.
They are clearly not within the boundaries assigned to the
territory which is the subject of the Act, and therefore the
Crown is not precluded from confirming the purchase. I am of
opinion that the Association should make an application to the
Government for a confirmation of the above purchase, and
accompany it with a fall communication, of not only all the
documents now laid before me, but of every other circumstance
connected with the acquisition."

"WILLIAM BURGE, Linc. Inn.

"16th Jan., 1836."

"We have perused the extremely able and elaborate opinion of
Mr. Burge, and entirely concur in the conclusions at which he has
arrived upon each of the queries submitted to us."

"THOS. PEMBERTON.
"W.W. FOLLETT.

"Jan. 21, 1836."

Some legislators warmly espoused their cause, and urged that
similar colonising movements had elsewhere received official
patronage; and that this, from the respectability of its members,
the worthiness of its objects, and the success of its scheme, was
deserving of favour and protection. After years of contest, some
consideration was shown to the adventurers; they were allowed, at
the first land sale in 1838, to purchase lands to the west of
Geelong at the then upset price of five shillings an acre, up to
the extent of seven thousand pounds. That sum was to be allowed
them as compensation for their outlay and loss in the foundation
of the colony.

This was a poor return Several of the Association have assured
me that such an allowance left no margin, as the expenses far
exceeded the sum named by Government. It is singular, that of the
original fifteen in the Association, several took no part in the
settlement, nor had further direct advantage from the good and
early times of cheap grass. Poor Mr. Gellibrand, with his friend
Mr. Hesse, were lost in the bush towards the Cape Otway country
in 1837. His attached companion, Mr. Batman, survived him but two
years. Worthy Dr. Thomson has but recently left us. Three-fourths
of the Association are deceased. They who regard the squatter
now, at ease in his possession, can but little appreciate the
perils, privations, sufferings, and cares through which the
pioneers of the colony had to pass. These who now enjoy their
wealth well deserve their prosperity.

{Page 66}

MR. BATMAN'S TREATY WITH THE NATIVES

This is too important a subject to be
lightly treated and must, therefore, be fully discussed. We will
first have Mr. Batman's story about it, as conveyed in his
journal. Describing his native friends, whom he met not far from
the site of Melbourne, on Saturday, 6th June, 1835, he thus
proceeds:—

"After some time, and full explanation, I found eight chiefs
amongst them, who possessed the whole of the territory near Port
Phillip. Three brothers, all of the same name, were the principal
chiefs, and two of them men of six feet high, and very good
looking; the other not so tall, but stouter. The other five
chiefs were fine men. After a full explanation of what my object
was, I purchased two large tracts of land from them—about
600,000 acres, more or less, and delivered over to them blankets,
knives, looking-glasses, tomahawks, beads, scissors, flour,
&c. &c., as payment for the land; and also agreed to give
them a tribute, or rent, yearly. The parchment the eight chiefs
signed this afternoon, delivering to me some of the soil, each of
them, as giving me full possession of the tracts of land."

The Sunday journal contains:—"Detained this morning some
time drawing up triplicates of the deeds of the land I purchased,
and delivering over to them more property. Just before leaving,
the two principal chiefs came and brought their two cloaks, or
royal mantles, and laid them at my feet, wishing me to accept the
same. On my consenting to take them, they placed them round my
neck and over my shoulders, and seemed quite pleased to see me
walk about with them on." "I had no trouble to find out their
secret marks. One of my natives (Bungett) went to a tree, out
sight of the women, and made the Sydney natives' mark. After this
was done, I took with me two or three of my natives to the
principal chief, and showed him the mark on the tree. This he
knew immediately, and pointed to the knocking out of the teeth.
The mark IS always made when the ceremony of knocking out the
teeth in the front is done. However, after this I desired,
through my natives, for him to make his mark; which, after
looking about some time, and hesitating some few minutes, he
took-the tomahawk and cut out in the bark of the tree his mark,
which is attached to the deed, and is the signature of the
country and tribe."

Only those who are acquainted with native habits in the wild
state can appreciate the action of Mr. Batman. It is easy to
sneer in ignorance of the customs of savage tribes. But let it be
remembered that Batman had lived much among the aborigines. As a
boy, he had been, as it were, brought up with them, in New South
Wales. They were his constant companions in his bush excursions
as a young man. He was so popular with them that not a few
secrets would be imparted to him. His daughters informed me that
he had been once admitted into some of their mysteries, and made
a chief. Then in Tasmania, his long residence among the blacks
there, his agreeable manners along with them, and his curiosity
and enterprise, with many years' experience, his knowledge was
beyond, perhaps, any man in the country. Though, therefore, his
critics may not appreciate these apparently absurd rites, and may
regard him as a self-deluded enthusiast, or something worse, it
is clear that there was a meaning in all that satisfied
himself.

The deed, drawn up by Mr. Gellibrand, was intended, by its
formal language, primarily to satisfy the scruples of the
civilised. This was the treaty:—

"Know all persons, that we, three brothers Jagajaga, Jagajaga,
Jagajaga, being the three principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock,
Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, Monmarmalar, being the chiefs of a
certain native tribe called Dutigallar, situate at and near Port
Phillip, called by us, the above-mentioned chiefs, Irausnoo and
Geelong, being possessed of the tract of land hereinafter
mentioned, for and in consideration of twenty pair of blankets,
thirty knives, twelve tomahawks, ten looking-glasses, twelve pair
of scissors, fifty handkerchiefs, twelve red shirts, four flannel
jackets, four suits of clothes, and fifty pounds of flour,
delivered to us by John Batman, residing in Van Diemen's Land,
Esquire, but at present sojourning with us and our tribe, do, for
ourselves, our heirs, and successors, give, grant enfeoff and
confirm unto the said John Batman, his heirs and assigns, all
that tract of country situate and being in the Bay of Port
Phillip, known by the name of Indented Head, out called by us
Geelong, extending across from Geelong harbour about due south
for ten miles, more or less, to the head of Port Phillip, taking
in the whole neck or tract of land containing about 100,000
acres, as the same hath been before the execution of these
presents delineated and marked out by us, according to the custom
of our tribe, by certain marks made upon the trees growing along
the boundaries of the said tract of land, with all advantages
belonging thereto, unto and to the use of the said John Batman,
his heirs, said tract of land, and place thereon sheep and
cattle, yielding and delivering to us and assigns, to the meaning
and intent that the said John Batman, his heirs and assigns, may
occupy and possess the same, and our heirs and successors the
yearly rent or tribute of fifty pair of blankets, fifty knives,
fifty tomahawks, fifty pair of scissors, fifty looking-glasses,
twenty suits of slops or clothing, and two tons of flour. In
witness thereof we Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, the three
principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock, Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip,
and Monmarmalar, the chiefs of the said tribe, have hereunto
affixed our seals to these presents, and have signed the same.
Dated, according to the Christian era, this 6th day of June,
1835.

Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of us, the same
having been fully and properly interpreted and explained to the
said chiefs.

(Signed)James Gumm,Wm. Todd.

Jagajaga, his x mark.Jagajaga, his x mark.Jagajaga, his x mark.Cooloolock, his x mark.Bungarie, his x mark.Yanyan, his x mark.Monmarmalar, his x mark.

(Signed)

John Batman.

Be it remembered that on the day and year within "written,
possession and delivery of the tract of land within mentioned was
made by the within-named Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga,
Cooloolock, Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, Monmarmalar, chiefs of the
tribes of natives called Dutigallar-Geelong, to the within-named
John Batman, by the said chiefs, taking up part of the soil, and
delivering the same to the said John Batman in the name of the
whole.

In presence of,
(Signed)James Gumm,Alexander Thomson,Wm. Todd.

JagajagaJagajagaJagajagaCooloolockBungarieYanyanMoowhipMonmarmalar

Know all persons, that we, three brothers, Jagajaga, Jagajaga,
Jagajaga, being the principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock,
Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, also being the chiefs
of a certain native tribe called Dutigallar, situate at and near
Port Phillip, called by us the above mentioned chiefs Tramoo,
being possessed of the tract of land thereinafter-mentioned, for,
and in consideration of twenty pair blankets, thirty tomahawks,
one hundred knives, fifty pair of scissors, thirty
looking-glasses, two hundred handkerchiefs, and one hundred
pounds of flour, and six shirts, delivered to us by John Batman,
residing in Van Diemen's Land, Esquire, but at present sojourning
with us and our tribe, do, for ourselves, our heirs and
successors, give, grant, enfeoff, and confirm unto the said John
Batman, his heirs and assigns, all that tract of country situate
and being in Port Phillip, running from the branch of the river
at the top of the port, about seven miles from the mouth of the
river, forty miles north-east, and from thence west forty miles
across Tramoo downs or plains, and from thence south-south-west
across mount Vilumarnatar to Geelong Harbour, at the head of the
same, and containing about 500,000, more or less acres, as the
same hath been before the execution of these presents delineated
and marked out by us, according to the custom of our tribe, by
certain marks made upon the trees growing along the boundaries of
the said tract of land, to hold the said tract of land, with all
advantages belonging thereto, unto and to the use of the said
John Batman, his heirs and assigns for ever, to the intent that
the said John Batman, his heirs, and assigns, may occupy and
possess the said tract of land, and place thereon sheep and
cattle, yielding and delivering unto us, our heirs and
successors, the yearly rent or tribute of one hundred pair
blankets, one hundred knives, one hundred tomahawks, fifty suits
of clothing, fifty looking-glasses, fifty pair scissors, and five
tons of flour. In witness thereof, we Jagajaga, Jagajaga,
Jagajaga, the above-mentioned principal chiefs, and Cooloolock,
Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, the chiefs of the
said tribe, have hereunto affixed our seals to these presents,
and have signed the same. Dated according to the Christian era,
this 6th day of June, 1835.

Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of us, the same
having been frilly and properly interpreted and explained to the
said chiefs.

(Signed)James Gumm,Wm. Todd.

Jagajaga, his x mark.Jagajaga, his x mark.Jagajaga, his x mark.Cooloolock, his x mark.Bungarie, his x mark.Yanyan, his x mark.Moowhip, his x mark.

Signed on the
6th June 1835.

Banks of Batman's Creek,John Batman.

Be it remembered, that on the day and year within written,
possession and delivery of the tract of land within mentioned,
was made by the within named Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga,
Cooloolock, Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, chiefs of
the tribes of natives called Dutigallar-Geelong, to the within
named John Batman, by the said chiefs taking up part of the soil,
and delivering the same to the said John Batman in the name of
the whole.

In presence of,
(Signed)James Gumm,Alexander Thomson,Wm. Todd.

JagajagaJagajagaJagajagaCooloolockBungarieYanyanMoowhipMonmarmalar

The territory thus purchased included all the western side of
Port Phillip Bay.

"What an absurdity!" cry ninety-nine out of one hundred. That
great friend to Australia, Dr. Lang, who has hit all round in his
time, and who invariably speaks out his mind in the most direct
manner, looking with a common-sense glance upon the treaty, calls
it "not merely a literary curiosity, but a singular instance of
the hallucination which an overweening regard for one's interest
will sometimes produce even in men of superior standing and
intelligence; for the supposition that such a transaction as the
following document records could be sanctioned for one moment by
the Government of any civilised country in the present age is in
every respect worthy of a lunatic asylum."

The doctor is right. In this age of diplomacy and strong
government a treaty with savages is absurd. And yet there were
precedents for such folly. To give money to the natives would
certainly have been useless; and to give powder, shot, muskets,
and rum—the usual articles of barter with aboriginal
tribes—would have been unchristian, and wholly unworthy the
members of the Association. Most colonists are aware of the
purchases of land in New Zealand for questionable articles, and
yet the British Government entertained some of these claims.
Going to the American continent, we learn that at a sale of land
at Guilford, in 1639, the chief received twelve coats, twelve
fathoms of wampum, twelve looking-glasses, twelve pair of shoes,
twelve pair of stockings, twelve hatchets, four kettles, twelve
knives, twelve hats, twelve porringers, and twelve spoons. In
1728 forty-eight square miles were sold by a tribe of Indians for
four guns, eight coats, ten shirts, ten pair of stockings, four
kettles, ten hatchets, forty pounds lead, ten pounds powder, and
forty knives. Another purchase was effected near Stamford, for
twelve coats, twelve hoes, twelve hatchets, twelve
looking-glasses, twelve knives, two kettles, and four fathoms of
white wampum. The Connecticut Indians sold a large tract to Roger
Ludlow for eight fathoms of wampum, six coats, ten hatchets, ten
hoes, ten knives, ten scissors, ten Jews' harps, a fathom of
tobacco, three kettles, and ten looking-glasses. The deed being
signed by the totems or marks of Tomakergo, Tokaneke,
Adam, Prosewamenos, and the chief Makaekemo. The Dutch bought a
fine piece of country for twenty-seven ells of cloth, six axes,
six kettles, eighteen knives, a sword blade, a pair of shears,
and some toys.

The old historian of Connecticut, De Forest, adds—"In
recording these transactions, a doubt easily crosses the mind
whether such purchases, when large tracts of land, which are now
valuable, were obtained for considerations which to us would be
trifling, can be considered fully in accordance with honesty and
justice. It must be remembered, however, that the settlers were
themselves what would now be considered poor, and that the land
obtained was worth almost nothing to them in their wild state. On
the other hand, the act of the Indians was free. They were as
highly pleased with the bargain as were the purchasers."

It is right to mention here that Mr. Batman's previous
application, as well as that of Mr. Henty's, having been rejected
by the Colonial Government from assumed incompetency to grant the
favour, it was neither absurd nor unjust to believe that Port
Phillip was really beyond the jurisdiction of the Governor of New
South Wales, and that the natives were the only parties to
consult in equity. We know, also, that at that very time another
portion of New Holland now called South Australia, was granted to
a private company in England, without any reference to the
assumed boundary of New South Wales, or any consultation of its
Governor.

Let it also be distinctly remembered that those Tasmanian
settlers had suffered so frightfully from the aborigines in their
own island home, that they thought a treaty in Port Phillip no
matter of joke, but one worthy of congratulation. Even those
loudest in condemnation of the grasp of so much land, and in
ridicule of the easy purchase of such a principality, were quite
agreed as to the advantages to be derived from the amicable
arrangement made by Mr. Batman. And many were ready to exclaim
with the Hobart Town Courier, "Happy had it been for Van
Diemen's Land if the same step had been taken with the aborigines
on its first settlement with the English."

It was but natural that the treaty became a legitimate subject
of joking. One writer, subscribing "Wrangleawea", informed the
editor of the Launceston paper of the return of the adventurer in
these terms:—"Sir, I am happy to inform you that the
schooner has arrived here from Port Phillip on the opposite side
of the straits. Mr. B——— has left Mr. Pigeon,
commander of the Sydney blacks, and who acted under Black
Robinson in catching the blacks here, in possession of the
territory, amounting to two millions of acres which he had
purchased from the natives."

But a really clever dialogue was presented to the readers of
the island colony at the end of June, by one who saw in the story
of the Port Phillip Treaty a favourable opportunity for him to
obtain a grant of land, on easy terms, from one of the Tasmanian
chiefs. As those sable gentlemen were then being removed for
safety to Flinders Island, the would-be-treaty-maker felt himself
obliged to conclude his arrangements with the representative of
Woureddy, the chief, in the person of a bust of that exile, which
had been placed in the Hobart Town Mechanics' Institute. These
are the particulars of his interview:—

"'Good morning, Mr. Woureddy, I hope I have the honour of
seeing your Majesty in poor health.'

"The powerful chief gave his reply with an assentery
smile.

"'You are King, I believe, of all the Western part of the
island, and held possession from your noble ancestors of those
fertile tracts of 600,000 acres, more or less, by Mr. G.A.
Robinson and Mr. Surveyor Sharland.'

"A significant nod.

"'Now that you are going to Flinders Island and Port Phillip
with Mr. Robinson, and the rest of your friends and relatives,
you can have no objection to sell me your fall right and title to
this portion of your dominions.'

"A significant nod.

"'I do not expect you to name your price, as you are not quite
perfect in the English language, but I now name it for you. Here
is a bucket of Brown's Elver potatoes, a rod of tobacco, six
pipes, a blanket, a dozen loaves of bread, and a dead kangaroo.
Are you content?'

"[I thought I could not lose much at this price, though the
land, I believe, is not very rich, and rather out of the
way—neither did I want to impose upon the King—I mean
King Woureddy, and offer him anything less.]

"His Majesty, like Jupiter Olympus, nodded, and the whole of
the western country, tiers, plains, rivers, gumtrees, and all
fell into my possession; and I thereby give Mr. Robert Knight,
Sir John Owen, Mr. Edward Lord, wild cattle, and all others, due
notice to decamp, as all trespassers from this time forth will be
proceeded against according to law. I then procured the
conveyance, duly drawn up in triplicate, on which Woureddy, with
proper regal pomp and dignity, shaking a portion of the grease
and red ochre out of his pendant locks, impressed it first with
the palm of his hand and afterwards with his foot. I then hastily
gathered up the parchment, which I took, thus ratified under his
sable Majesty's naked hand and foot, to be registered in Mr.
Beaumont's office."

But we have, under the guise of history, the details of the
affair given in "Mr. Lloyd's Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and
Victoria", a book of agreeable reading. The writer had picked up
a few materials, and thus worked them up into a narrative. He
tells us about Wooloomooloo, and the Sydney natives, who,
following the trail in Port Phillip, came suddenly upon a band of
fifty warriors. Coming forward to make friends, we are told that
"notwithstanding his spirited gesture and vehement jabbering,
which he concluded by thrusting a stick into the ground and
formally tabooing it, the aboriginal warriors still maintained
their warlike attitude. Unfortunately, the language of the sable
mediator differed so materially from that of the Port Phillipians
that but little progress could be effected by such
incomprehensible parlance. At this ominous stage of the
proceedings, however, the old native, who had accompanied the
party, stepped forward, and in a few magical sentences, happily
produced a more amicable feeling." The story gathers in interest
as it proceeds:—"Wooloomooloo earnestly endeavoured to
explain the desire of his mater fader—as he called
the white chief—to purchase large tracts of land. To render
his advocacy the more comprehensible, he repeatedly drove sticks
into the soil, dug up small pieces of earth, and gave them to his
master, bidding Jagajaga to repeat the same forms, which the
intelligent chief did, accompanying each act with roars of
laughter and yah-yah's." The continuation of this mythical
adventure is so amusing that the reader will readily excuse a
farther extract:—

"So rapturous a feeling did the magnificent country impart to
the white chief, that he was ever exclaiming—'O, heavenly,
heavenly sight! What man could wish for brighter scenes than
these for his future pilgrimage on earth? Ah me! Benbow, let's
have a sip of Cognac Vieux, and we'll drink confusion to our
adversaries."

"'Sdeath! No, man, no. 'Twould be a heinous sin to taint their
unadulterated palates with baleful firewater, &c. We'll have
a little."

"Meanwhile, Kardinia, third betrothed lubra of Jagajaga, with
graceful modesty, stole up to the council fire by the side of her
savage lord, and, in so doing, elicited an exclamation from the
admiring sailor, Benbow, 'Holloa, shipmate! run up the colours!
Here's Miss Wennus de Mediky come into port. Split my topsails,
Jim, if I don't conwest her jetty shoulders with the Order of the
Blanket,' &c. 'The document was ordered to be read aloud and
explained; to the terms of which the chiefs signified their
entire consent by sundry senseless broad grins, pulling down the
corner of one eye in a playful mood."

These are some of Mr. Fawkner's views upon the treaty. "The
firm or company that sent Batman over only gave him one deed, a
copy of which I obtained before he left Launceston; that deed he
did get signed by the Jagajagas, at the Merri Creek, just outside
the Fitzroy municipality; but it was not read over to them; it
was not interpreted to them or explained, for these reasons; not
one of the Sydney blacks knew the language of the men of this
colony; not one of the Sydney blacks could read, except Bullett,
and he only learnt words of one syllable, and this I offered to
prove (whilst Batman was alive) to Governor Sir Richard Bourke;
and any man of sense must know that to translate a deed to any
one of a different tongue or language requires a real knowledge
of both languages, and these Sydney blacks could not read, much
less translate writing." He also points out the absurdity of the
deed, stating that Hie land had been marked "before the execution
of these presents", &c.

My reply to this is simply that I defend, not the lawyer's
office in Hobart Town, but would appeal to the frank story in the
journal. Nowhere does Mr. Batman speak of the absurdities of the
deed. His narrative is straightforward. The deed had been
prepared beforehand. Mr. Batman had to fill up blanks of acres,
dates, and description. It is clear that without an absolute
translation, or literal rendering, all parties concerned knew
something about the transaction. The blacks understood an
exchange for some of their hunting grounds. Some rough features
of the country were indicated, and the articles for barter told
the rest. As to the whites, though several persons informed me
that Messrs. Gellibrand, Batman and Co. believed in the efficacy
of the legal instrument, we may doubt whether they did not
chiefly seek to protect themselves from invaders, act fairly
toward a people in recognition of their property in the soil, and
with a desire to avoid future collision, but more to place
themselves in a position for recognition with the British
Government. We are accustomed among ourselves to smile at the
verbiage of a legal document, and the curious and unnecessary
conditions expressed therein, and need not, therefore, be too
hard upon this.

Mr. Fawkner's objections to the Sydney blacks have not much
weight. They were not so ignorant as represented. For nearly ten
years they had been with Mr. Batman or Mr. Robinson. In the
journal of 1830, now before me, there are frequent references to
them. They were faithful friends of our founder, and their
services were rewarded by grants of land and official laudation.
As to the marking of trees, Mr. Wedge assures me of his
conviction that trees were so marked, but oh the principle of
survey before selection. Mr. Batman distinctly says—"This
took place alongside of a beautiful stream of water (Merri
Creek,) and from thence my land commences, and where a tree is
marked four ways to know the corner boundary."

Not satisfied with the denial of Mr. Batman's statement about
his walking so many miles a-day on his first visit here, Mr.
Fawkner told his readers in 1853, and repeated the story in his
lecture, that Mr. Batman's inability to walk arose from a
loathsome disease from which he was then suffering. In his
lecture he said, "I know that Mr. Batman was then labouring under
the loathsome disease." It is so reported in the Age of
1862. But he volunteered, a few weeks ago, before an audience
consisting mainly of young females, a more particular account of
the disease. Nothing but a sense of justice to the departed would
warrant me making even an allusion to so unnecessary and
disgusting a disclosure, even if true. But to rebut the cruel
slander, and the imputation that the journal was a concoction of
falsehoods, it is necessary to argue out this unsatisfactory
subject.

Mr. Fawkner seeks to substantiate his assertion of his
inability to walk, in May, 1835, by a reference to his condition
twelve months after! For he observed that when our Founder and he
went to the funeral of poor Mr. Franks (murdered by the natives,)
Mr. Batman was then so ill as to walk with some difficulty. Now,
had he remarked this infirmity upon Mr. Batman's call at his
hotel in Launceston, after his visit to Port Phillip, we might
have had some evidence to consider. It is hardly fair to reason
from a man's present lameness that he was a cripple a year
before.

The result of inquiry has brought out a host of contradictions
to Mr. Fawkner's assertions. I can, if necessary, adduce names of
some of our most respectable old colonists as authorities on the
other side. It is hardly likely that so splendid a bushman as Mr.
Batman would venture upon such an expedition had he not been
well. It is quite improbable that those with whom he acted would
have urged his visit under such circumstances. It is certainly
contradictory to the well-known fact of his rapid travelling
through the island after his return, his interviews with
prominent citizens in different parts, his second voyage to Port
Phillip months after, and his subsequent active exertions in the
service of the association.

But to written testimony. A letter I have of Mr. Batman's,
dated some time after his return, speaks of rapid journeys.
Captain Robson, quoting from his diary, informs us that Mr.
Batman, "armed to the teeth", went ashore at Saltwater River, and
that the party were away for three days in the bush. He mentions,
in another place, that the leader came back for fresh stock for
his new journey. Mr. Robertson saw him immediately before and
after his first visit, and only remarked his robust health and
immense activity. The Hon. J.H. Wedge writes, "I have every
reason to believe, from the information I had from his men, that
he went a considerable distance inland, I laid his route down
from his journal. Mr. Batman's illness was after his visit to
Hobart Town to report and consult with Mr. Gellibrand and others
with whom he was associated." As to the general correctness of
his descriptions, it is sufficient to say that new comers went by
them, as they appeared afterwards in print.

But a letter from Mr. ex-Sheriff Sams replies conclusively
upon the subject. In another part of that communication, to be
found in this work, we have an account of a night ride that
gentleman had with Mr Batman, from Launceston to Ben Lomond,
thirty miles along an execrable road, on a dismal night of rain.
He then alludes to the slander: "I, who had occasion to see him
so frequently before he left Launceston, on his expedition, and
who was the first of those interested in the object of it whom he
met on his return, can safely affirm that few men could or did
undergo fatigue as poor Batman did. In fact, a better bushman at
this time could not be met with. He was in good health when he
left Launceston, and on his return, his ride home that
night—and such a night—is tolerable proof that he was
not an ailing man."

Had Mr. Batman a son or brother to defend his rights, might he
not be able to retaliate upon Mr. Fawkner upon the question of an
immoral past? Were the times so perilous to one, and so harmless
to the other? Can the Tasmanian career of one be exposed while
that of the other be invulnerable to attack?

The source of Mr. Lloyd's joke about the bacchanalian
celebration of the treaty can be traced to Mr. Fawkner, who may
plead that he had the story from the spy he placed near Mr.
Batman; for in the lecture he has these words—"Grog was
produced, a good quantity imbibed, and Mr. John Batman was
proclaimed 'King John the First of Port Phillip, the largest
landed proprietor in the world.'" The last sentence is recorded
by Mr. Evans as having been a laughing expression of Mr. Batman's
in Mr. Fawkner's public-house, and yet it is placed in the mouth
of one of his men. Mr. Wedge answers this story—"I never
heard of the proclamation. I doubt if Batman had any grog beyond
a small quantity in a pocket-pistol. I know I never had any in
the journey I made." Surely Mr. Fawkner was not confounding it
with the case of his own small party having twenty-five gallons
of gin with them!

Mr. Fawkner has, he believes, a point of advantage over the
journalist, where he mentions twenty-six miles up the Saltwater
River. But our Founder did not row up that distance, but walked
along the banks. Our honourable member has this grim joke about
his rival telling the natives he would bring over his seven
daughters to settle among them: "I suppose he meant to marry his
seven daughters to seven chiefs."

Apparently, as we judge now, the critic has a strong case
about the dates, which differ in report and journal. Legal
accuracy would require consistency here. But such negligence does
not invalidate the authenticity of a story. Captain Robson, in
his letter to the Cornwall Chronicle, some four years ago,
dates his remarks very oddly. I have often been struck with the
looseness of chronology even in official records. I have been
amused, when looking at old journals of the parties after the
Tasmanian blacks, in the war forty years ago, at the singular
corrections of days of the week.

In Mr. Batman's journal for 1830, written under difficulties
in the bush, and bearing such internal evidence of truthfulness
as to make me more trustful of his Port Phillip journal, there
are several places in which the days and dates have had to be
struck out and unheeded, because of wrong computation. The same
heedlessness may be noticed even now in the statements of persons
not early habituated to commercial exactitude, nor trained to
methodical customs. The reports of our police courts give us
abundant illustration of this peculiarity, without the charge of
perjury. At any rate, as the editor of the Yeoman properly
asserts: "Any confusion in dates cannot affect the fact of Mr.
Batman having been the first person who came here, and began the
permanent settling of the colony of Victoria." With this
preamble, I introduce, without date, a reminiscence of Captain
Robson about this eventful visit and treaty, as narrated in the
Chronicle of 1862. The same can be compared with the story
given by the ancient mariner to my esteemed friend, the Rev. R.K.
Ewing. The reader must remember that allowances are to be made
for memory and difficulties of observation. As old George Evans
said to me the other day, "You know a fellow can't speak
positively to what took place thirty years ago, and he may chance
to vary his tale a bit." This is the fate of all traditional
narratives. And yet it is upon such that our most reliable
histories have to be written. But to Captain Robson's yarn.

"15th. Cleared the Heads, the wind N.W., out 20 miles to
westward; bore up for Point Sorell. 16th. Put to sea; wind S.W.,
steady breeze, but heavy sea from N.W. 18th. Wind variable. 19th.
Wind from the northward; made to the eastward. 20th. Brought up
under West Hunter Island; landed the Sydney natives, nine of them
altogether, at three p.m.; at seven p.m. brought them; wind
chopped round to the S.W.; run out between the islands. 21st. Off
Flat Top Point. 22nd. Run into, or entered, Port Phillip; run as
far as Indented Head; it fell calm; brought up; saw a native dog
on shore; out boat and landed; the dog made for the boat, but as
soon as he saw our dogs he set off, ours after him, five in
number; Dick White's greyhound hauling him first; he tore the
roof of his head right off, and took the water. We shot them
both, as the hound would not live. Weighed anchor at five p.m.;
started up Geelong; at nine a.m. saw native fires; got as close
to them as we could. 23rd. Landed at two p.m., up to our ankles
in mud. Got up to the fires about two hours before daylight, but
the natives were gone. Sent the black bloodhounds after them;
found them about three miles off; brought them back; there were
forty-two women and children, not a man amongst them.

"Batman made them handsome presents, and they informed him
that the men had gone to war a long long way, pointing in the
direction. Batman than started to cross the Barrabool Hills, but
was driven back by a most severe hailstorm; made a second attempt
and saw the Barwon, but getting late he returned on board,
intending to go the following day, but when on board he altered
his mind, and he said he thought it would be better to stay and
see the natives all together, and as they were at war they would
decide the grand point. Then, says he, we will lose no time. Got
under weigh and started for the Yarra on the 24th. Brought up as
near the bar as possible—the forty-two natives had brackish
water carrying in their buckets. On the 25th, landed on the upper
side of the Saltwater Creek: Mr. J. Batman, Gumm (not Gun, as
Fawkner calls him,) Ned Thompson, two men belonging to the
vessel, and nine Sydney natives, fifteen in all, armed to the
teeth, and loaded with as much as they could carry. Off they
went, us watching them as far as we could see them.

"On the 28th, we heard signal guns at nine p.m.; answered and
sent boats on shore. Party returned, but could not find the
natives. On the 29th, got under weigh and stood into the bay to
see if we could see any native fires. We did, and took the
bearings; then run back and brought up as before.

"On the 30th, we started at daylight from the upper side of
Saltwater Creek with a fresh stock, and all in good cheer. On the
second day we saw an old man and woman, and three natives; down
swag and gave chase, caught them and brought them back to Batman,
who made them very handsome presents; in two hours and a-half we
saw the natives, 400 or 500 strong. As the latter saw our party
they one and all began to set up such an infernal yell and rushed
towards the party; however, the old man and old woman set up a
different yell, which pacified them, and they all ran back, stuck
their spears in small heaps, and then made friends with the
party; the party stopped two nights with them, each different
party keeping strict watch all night.

"4th August.—Party returned on board after making
friends with the natives, and parting with nearly all they had,
left them good friends.

"5th August.—Batman and party went up the Yarra and
myself. We filled three casks of water, and on going down cut a
boat hook staff. Here one of the natives cut a good-sized tree
nearly down, and said jokingly 'Dat was Robson's tree,' which
made Batman smile. Returned on board and started for Indented
Head, or Queenscliff which is now; commenced landing the stores.
Got up to the tent, landed several tons of potatoes and flour,
pork, beef, &c., and plenty of ammunition, with a written
instruction what to do. Batman wrote this instruction while we
were landing—to build a sod hut thirty feet long, ten
broad, and to roof it with sods, leaving loopholes in different
places; they then would be safe. In the meantime to allow the
natives each one pound of meat per day, but not to allow them to
make any huts nearer than 300 yards away of them, and to keep
them at a respectable distance.

"6th.—All being landed, we left the party a new whale
boat, complete. We got under weigh past Point Nepean at four
p.m., bound for Launceston, after leaving at Indented Head, Ted,
Gumm, Thompson, and seven natives.

"8th.—Entered Tamor Heads and arrived at the wharf on
the 9th at two a.m.—Robert
Robson."

The reader may wonder why Mr. Fawkner should take such pains
to render ridiculous and despicable the man against whom he
writes so bitterly. His egotism may be one cause. But he was
evidently jealous of the attention paid to his rival by all new
comers, especially official ones. He rather absurdly put this
forth in the Diggers' Advocate above a dozen years
ago:—"And yet Mr. Batman got power, not only to hold the
land and the house he built (on Batman's Hill) but also a large
section on the Yarra Yarra. Reader, butter, and milk, and eggs,
and a few fowls, &c. &c., are very acceptable when
travelling in an almost uninhabited country, and of these a very
copious supply found their way into the large tent of the
Governor-in-Chief whilst he sojourned at Port Phillip. The writer
of these reminiscences was never given to 'grease the fat pig',
nor fawn to men dressed in a little brief authority, but kept on
the even tenor of his way."

Old Robson has a fling at the writer of the above story in the
following words:—"You were the founder of Melbourne, as you
like to be styled; why, did not Governor Bourke pay you a visit
when at Melbourne, and make you a present of four cases of wine,
as he did John Batman? Ah, well, you might think it very cool of
him, but he did, for I tasted it, and it was excellent. But,
Johnny, instead of running down John Batman, you ought to raise a
monument to him, and him alone you ought to thank. His
perseverance was beyond everything I ever saw. It might well be
said he was the real founder of Melbourne, and I don't suppose
there is a street named after him. No, it is you, and the likes
of you, that wish the honour he earned at the risk of his life
may be buried with him in his grave."

Those are rough words, coming from the fall heart of the old
man, jealous for the memory of his former friend Batman, and
indignant at the intrusive supplanter of his fame. But I have
still heavier argument to bring.

Mr. Fawkner had, beyond any man, in speech and words,
ridiculed the idea of making a treaty with the wretched natives,
and especially of using the ignorant Sydney natives for the share
of that legal process. He has laughed to scorn the whole affair,
and covered the head of Batman with contempt for his part in that
folly. What "would our readers say if I show them that Mr.
Fawkner, in 1835, not only believed in the advantages of such a
treaty, not only respected the abilities of the Sydney blacks,
and not only reverenced the power of John Batman, but actually
sought to do the same thing himself, and actually sought help
from the very man he condemns, and the very agency he so
liberally derides! I have the original letter of Mr. Batman to
Mr. Wedge now before me, and will give an extract from the
same:—

Writing on the 18th of June, soon after his making this treaty
with our aborigines, and when the minds of the colonists were
excited by the news, he speaks of a visit he received from Mr.
Fawkner, and tells his friend Wedge that—"He intends to
purchase the land from the natives, and said he did not
want a large tract, that he would have some difficulty in
treating with them, unless I would allow him one of my
natives, and if I could not, the only thing he could do after
settling there would be to send to Sydney for some."

I forbear making any comment.

{Page 84}

DID BATMAN SEE THE YARRA FIRST?

Mr. Fawkner emphatically denies that
his rival saw the Yarra and the site of Melbourne on his first
visit to Port Phillip, but claims the merit of its discovery, or
rediscovery, for his party in August, 1835. Thus we find him in
1853 writing:—"The next day (after going up the Saltwater
River) they took water as well as food, and pushed up the Yarra
Yarra, having noticed the opening thereto on their return from
the Saltwater stream; and after about an hour and a-quarter's
pull, they reached with great joy, the basin at Melbourne." He
states elsewhere that Batman did not get up the river. I heard
him myself declare that Batman tried to find a channel up the
Yarra but failed. Elsewhere he writes that a Mr. Gibson
discovered the river in 1804, and reported the same to Governor
Collins, who would take no notice of it. With much force, then,
does the editor of the Yeoman, in August, 1862, thus
retort upon the veteran:—"If, as Mr. Fawkner states, a Mr.
Gibson in 1804 discovered and described the Yarra, then he, and
not Mr. Fawkner, is entitled to the honour of having done
so."

It is somewhat singular, that while Mr. Fawkner and Mr. George
Evans doubt Mr. Batman's visit to the Yarra, that the first-named
gentleman should, in 1836, speak thus of the treaty:—"His
purchase follows the river up the right bank for nine
miles from the bay's head", &c. Again, in 1853, he
says:—"It appears that Mr. Batman, his party, and the
aborigines, travelled some four or five miles up the Yarra Yarra,
which river he did not find." In 1862 he gives Mr. Batman
credit for a knowledge of the river. When speaking of the treaty,
he describes it:—"It set out that the land bought was
bounded by the Yarra Yarra from its mouth to three miles above
the falls", &c.; "and thence by the waters of Port Phillip
Bay to the mouth of the Yarra Yarra."

Many places are known, but not revealed to the public, being,
perhaps, regarded as of no importance. It is, therefore, probable
that prowling whalers and sealers, who had their settlements upon
islands in the Straits, in Western Port, and even on Kangaroo
Island, should have seen the Yarra. One Watts, now of Daylesford,
asserts his knowledge of the river many years before the
settlement. In a letter kindly addressed to me by Mr. Timothy
Brown is the following account of the old man:—"I have
learned this much further about his first visit to Hobson's Bay.
He formed one of two boats' crews that belonged to a whaler, and
chased a fish into Port Phillip. The whale was killed, and
stranded on or near St. Kilda beach. The seamen then endeavoured
to discover fresh water—one of the boats entering the Yarra
Yarra, and the other the Saltwater River. The crew of the latter,
finding their stream brackish, joined their companions in me
Yarra, and after filling their beakers, both parties returned to
the whale and cut it in pieces."

John Batman's journal describes the Yarra and Batman's Swamp
in the following terms, upon Sunday, 7th June, 1835, some
eighteen weeks before Fawkner camped there. Describing a course
evidently from Merri Creek to the sandy soil of the University
Hill neighbourhood, he writes:—"We then made the river I
had gone up a few days before (the Saltwater,] intending to come
on the opposite side of the river, and hail the ship. I crossed
on the banks of the river a large marsh (Batman's Swamp,) about
one mile and a-half wide, by three or four miles long, of the
richest description of soil—not a tree. At the upper end of
this marsh is a large lagoon. I should think, from the distance I
saw, that it was upwards of a mile across, and full of swans,
ducks, geese, &c. After crossing this marsh, we passed
through a tea-tree scrub, very high and thick. We expected, on
getting through this, to make the vessel in an hour or two; but,
to our great surprise, when we got through the scrub, we
found ourselves on a much larger river than the one we
went up and had just come down. It was now near sunset, and it
would take two days to head the river again. So, after some time,
I made up my mind that two of the Sydney natives should swim
across the smallest river, and go to the vessel and bring up the
boat. Bullet and Bungett swam, and had to go about seven miles,
which they did, and were back again with the boat in three hours.
I was glad to see them, as we had got on the point at the
junction of the rivers, where the tide had now risen up to
our ankles." On the Monday there is this entry:—"The wind
foul this morning for Indented Head. We tried, but could not get
out of the river. The boat went up the large river I have
spoken of, which comes from the east, and I am glad to state,
about six miles up found the river all good water and very deep.
THIS WILL BE THE PLACE FOR A VILLAGE."

Can we wonder at the editor of the Yeoman exclaiming,
after reciting the above, "Batman was the true discoverer of the
river Yarra Yarra."

The hon. John Holder Wedge, of Tasmania, the first manager
here, in 1835, in a letter to me, explains the journey of Batman
in these words:—"He afterwards explored up the banks of the
Saltwater River, from thence to the eastward to the head of the
Moonee Ponds, proceeding north-east from thence till he fell in
with the Jigga Jigga tribe of natives, and then returned to the
marsh or swamp near the present site of Melbourne, and
joined his vessel, which had waited for him at, or near to,
Williamstown."

Old Captain Robson, who accompanied Mr. Batman as mate of the
Rebecca, in his letter to the Launceston Chronicle
twenty-seven years after the event, tells this
tale:—"Batman and party went up the Yarra, and myself. We
filled three casks of water, and on going down, cut a boat-hook
staff. Here one of the natives cut a good-sized tree nearly down,
saying jokingly, 'Dat was Robson's tree,' which made Batman
smile." In his subsequent address-to Mr. Fawkner, whose lecture
of "Reminiscences" in 1862 he was then criticising, the Old
Salt thus unmistakably, but with no civilised refinement,
expresses himself:—"However, Johnny has kept his
'Reminiscences' a long time. I suppose he thinks, because Batman
is dead, that all the rest of his party are also for ever silent,
and he blows off his vain steam. But, Johnny, you knew well
enough when you were giving your lecture, that Batman's party had
been up the Yarra, for you could not help seeing a tea-tree
chopped newly down, on the left hand side, a long way above
Pleasant Hill, as you call it, or Batman's Wharf; for we came up
as far as the Falls. A good-sized one, too, it was; not easy to
go past it in the dark without seeing it. It was in the same
year, so I do not think that a top could grow on it to cause a
mistake." In 1866 the old man told the tale in these words to my
friend the Rev. R.K. Ewing, "We entered the Yarra, and watered
near where Melbourne now is." Captain Robson further says, "The
master of the Enterprise, Mr. Hunter, had heard from
myself the particulars of the Yarra, and about fresh water." He
adds Luther about Batman, "He had waited, after having been, as I
have said up the Yarra, at the Indented Head to get the
party."

The documentary argument about the Yarra may be closed with
the language of Wm. Robertson, Esq., who personally assured me
that he had all particulars from Batman within a few days after
his return from Hobson's Bay. That gentleman has such a firm
reliance upon the known integrity of the explorer that he would
be content with the simple testimony of the man. In a note I
received from him lately he says, "I did not know till I read it
in your letter that any one doubted Batman's having ascended the
Yarra from its junction with the Saltwater River, and I feel
certain that no one who ever knew him well could for a moment
believe that he stated what was inconsistent with the truth
when he said that he had done so."

If, then, Batman was first on the Yarra, thought it a
favourable place for a village, spoke of it to many in Tasmania,
and arranged for a settlement there, though Mr. George Evans and
Captain Lancey were actually on the ground before the Port
Phillip Association had its quarters there, yet, as the
Batmanites were living there before Mr. Fawkner came into the
country, it may be certain that Mr. Fawkner was not the founder
of Melbourne, much less of the colony, and that Batman,
indirectly at least, was its real founder. Such at any rate was
the belief of the Tasmanian settlers, for we find even a year
after, in November, 1836, the Hobart Town Courier
endorsing the sentiment. Its article is, "We learn that Captain
Lonsdale has selected the original settlement formed by Mr.
Batman on the Yarra Yarra as the site of the infant
metropolis." This, though first called Glenelg, became the
town of Melbourne.

{Page 88}

THE FIRST SQUATTER IN PORT PHILLIP BAY.

The first squatter, in the present
meaning of that word—that is the first flockmaster—on
the Yarra was undoubtedly Mr. John Aitken, after whom the Gap is
named.

The notice of his sailing, from the Launceston
Advertiser, gives the date July 20th, 1836. The vessel was
the Endeavour, Captain Bellin. The passengers are there
given as Messrs. J. Aitken, H. Thompson, Morris, J.B. Harwood,
Js. Young, and J. Brawl. Mr. Fawkner asserts that, not knowing
how to steer, they were glad to follow the Enterprise over
to Western Port, and thence to Port Phillip. They landed their
sheep—the first flock in Port Phillip Bay—near
Arthur's Seat, drove them along the western coast, seeking better
feed, until they reached the Yarra. Arriving there, they found
Captain Lancey and Mr. Evans already ashore, and received from
them assistance to cross the river. Going on with their fleecy
charge, they, disregarding Mr. Batman's treaty, and believing
themselves—like the Yarra settlers—entitled to what
they could sdze, took up land some twenty miles north of
Melbourne.

But it is right to bear in mind that, though these
enterprising men, Mr. Aitken and the others, were able to rush a
small flock across before the association—that bulkier
body—could organise their transporting force; yet they owed
their information of the country wholly to Mr. Batman, and felt
safe to dare the savage from the pacific interview with the
blacks held by the pioneer.

While George Evans was looking for a suitable place before
bringing his sheep, and while the Batman Association was
communicating with Government, and getting an official
confirmation of their claim, others—like Mr.
Aitken—were seizing the golden opportunity, appropriating
the green pastures, and harvesting the spoil of the new country.
Like, as Messrs. Henty and Sons had appropriated Portland Bay in
1834, so did many others, after Mr. Batman's visit, seize the
lands of Port Phillip in 1835.

{Page 89}

DIVISION OF THE SPOIL.

Like a rush to a new diggings before
the arrival of a gold commissioner, or warden, each new comer to
Port Phillip grasped at what he could. Amusing tales are told of
men going up to the top of a high hill, looking around, and
exclaiming, "All I see I claim!" When, then, another came within
the charmed circle he was directed to "go-ahead". The Cornwall
Chronicle of May 23rd, 1835, then anticipating Mr. Fawkner's
party following Mr. Batman, has this judicious piece of advice,
"We recommend all leaders of the intending 'new colonists' to
choose the sites of their operations as widely away from each
other as possible."

The Port Phillip Association made by map rough partition of
the land the supposed they had purchased, John Batman
appropriating the neighbourhood of Hobson's Bay westward and
southward for miles. Mr. Fawkner pursued the same system. His own
account, given to the Digger's Advocate, is very
interesting:—

"On passing the Duck Ponds, near Shortland Bluff, a
whale-boat, manned with some Sydney aborigines and one white man,
came off, and asked the news—where from—and where
to,' and told our people that Mr. John Batman, KING of Port
Phillip, had bought all the lands and desired ALL
TRESPASSERS TO KEEP ALOOF! The blacks were civil enough,
and supplied our people with plenty of good choice fish. The
Enterprise was conducted by Captain Hunter, as master of
the vessel, along the southern channel, and the men landed each
day to examine the country from five to ten miles inland, the
vessel only moving a short distance until they returned on board,
and pushing a few miles further by night in order to examine new
lands the next day. No eligible spot was found on the east side
of Port Phillip Bay. The directions were not to finally settle
down, except upon a river or copious supply of fresh water. On
Thursday, the 20th, the Enterprise came to anchor in
Hobson's Bay, just clear of the bar upon the channel to the Yarra
Yarra; and the new colonists, Messrs. R.H. Moor, George Evans, W.
Jackson, and Captain Lancey, putting some provender into the
five-oared whale-boat brought for the occasion, on Friday, the
21st of August, pushed off with two of the workmen, to explore
the inlet. In fact, they all, except Captain Hunter, master of
the Enterprise, doubted as to that being the debouchment
of any stream. But he found it on his chart, and advised their
trying to find what he was sure they would—a fresh water
river. With three cheers from the crew for success to the
adventurers, they pushed off, and after once or twice touching on
the mud flats, they found plenty of deep water, and pushed on
joyfully and thoughtlessly, passed the junction of the Yarra
Yarra without much notice, and went up the direct course, named
by them the Saltwater River, because they could not get up it far
enough to find the stream fresh, owing to the vast number of
fallen trees lying in the water, which so obstructed the
navigation, that after much labour they landed, and could not
then discover the fresh water, the place that they landed at not
allowing them to see the course of the stream. They returned to
the vessel exhausted and fretful, having been most of the day
without water to drink) they having on all former occasions found
plenty of that element on shore. Mind, this was in August, the
wet season.

"The next day they took water as well as food, and pushed up
the Yarra Yarra, having noticed the opening thereto on their
return from the Saltwater stream; and after about an hour and
quarter's pull, they reached with great joy the basin at
Melbourne, and were delighted, in fact, half wild with
exultation, at the beauty of the country. The velvet-like grass
carpet, decked with flowers of most lively hues, most liberally
spread over the land, the fresh water, the fine lowlands and
lovely knolls around the lagoons on the flat or swamps, the
flocks, almost innumerable, of teal, ducks, geese, and swans and
minor fowls, filled them with joy. They all with one voice agreed
that they had arrived at the site of the new settlement, and
resolved to have the vessel brought up if possible, the goods,
stores, &c., landed, and the commencement of a town forthwith
made. They took a stand upon what was subsequently called
Batman's Hill, and passed some hours there and thereabout,
enjoying the novel and extraordinary view before them. They were
so pleased with the country that they made it night before they
returned to the vessel, which was lying opposite to Williamstown
(that now is) near the bar entrance to the Yarra Yarra River.
Captain Hunter having been diligently employed these two days
with his crew sounding the way up, it took some time to provide
poles and fix them on the various shoals in the stream, now
marked by large buoys and strong beacons (but then markless;) and
all this accomplished, the vessel was, with much trouble got up
to the so-called junction, and the next day a fair wind drove the
lucky Enterprise up into the basin at Melbourne; the
Captain reporting three fathoms all the way up, and in one part
of the basin seven and a half-fathoms of water, viz., from the
junction up, and into the basin.

"No time was lost, although it was Sunday, in getting the
vessel close to the bank, at the very spot now occupied by the
old shed of the Customs department, and some timber had to be cut
from the overhanging trees to allow the vessel to lie alongside
the bank; from a plank the people landed, and the horses, having
been nearly six weeks aboard, were hoisted out and landed, very
much to their satisfaction; the fine young green grass and
flowering herbage appearing to gratify their palates, and their
gambols evincing their delight at being released from ship board,
with its unsteady evils and close confinement. There the master
and crew of the Enterprise joined the adventurers in their
undisguised joy at the success, that after several weeks' arduous
exertion, seemed likely to reward, aye, well reward, their joint
labours.

"The land having been selected close to Mr. Langland's
foundry, for the garden, and also to put in a few acres of wheat;
on Tuesday the first plough was put into the earth, and on the
8th of September five acres of wheat were sown, partly on and
around Mr. Langland's foundry, and a garden commenced between
that and the hill known as Batman's Hill, upon which hill our
people first pitched their tent on the 30th of August, 1835, and
was not removed till J.P. Fawkner came over in October, 1835,
when he fixed to dwell nearer the Fall, and put up his house
exactly at the rear of the Custom-house."

"The ploughing was performed by horse labour, and the
ploughman was George Wise, one of the sons of Mr. Richard Wise of
Norfolk Plains, who was engaged to J.P. Fawkner for one year's
service, as general farm servant at £25 a year.

"It had been agreed that each, person of the six associates
should have a plot of land, on which to build and make a garden,
and grow corn on, and that if it was found that the Government
would not allow the whites to buy and hold land, under title
obtained from the aborigines, it was thought no reasonable
British Government would refuse to the first bona fide
settlers a plot of land on which they might grow food for
themselves and dependants. This expectation, as the reader will
find, was one very wide of the mark when Sir Richard Bourke took
possession of our discovery, made at the risk of life, and at a
cost of money few people are aware of.

"The small lots agreed upon were measured off, simply ten
acres for each of the six. Contrast this with the squatting
fraternity, pushed over under the auspices of Lieutenant-Governor
Arthur, in which his nephew, if not himself, had one share, and
many of his officers also shared amongst them the fine fertile
fields of Australia Felix. The writer cannot but own that he
loves that name or title far more than the common hackneyed one
of "Victoria". The lands haying been roughly measured off, lots
were drawn, and on the lands which fell to J.P. Fawkner's share,
the ground was ploughed and sown with wheat and a garden dug,
plants put in, seeds sown, and the fruit trees planted in the
soil."

In his lecture, he refers again to their agreement, that each
of the six partners was to have ten acres, one-sixth of sixty
acres to be selected. "We had agreed to plot out sixty acres
amongst the six adventurers, and to subdivide these into six
lots, at ten acres each, and each one was to draw lots for his
ten-acre plot." I need hardly say that Mr. George Evans knows
nothing of this. In the first place, of the six he knew not one
who wanted the land for cultivation except Mr. Fawkner, who sent
over two men to put in some seeds wherever the party might choose
to settle. Mr. Evans says of the four who came across, Captain
Lancey took no land, as he intended to go trading between Port
Phillip and Launceston; Mr. Jackson had no intention of doing so;
Mr. Marr went back at once, and he himself put up a hut for
shelter only till he could get or send for his sheep from the
island.

{Page 93}

HOW TO TREAT A SQUATTER.

Mr. Fawkner, and also his old companion
Mr Evans, have alluded to threats of violence toward the early
Yarra party. They more than hint to a pressure being brought
against them by the Batmanites, amounting to an expulsion or
extermination, through the agency of the blacks. As usual,
whatever was imagined of the Association was attached to the name
of Batman; and the honour of that gentleman being involved in the
accusation, I am able, by documentary evidence of the highest
character, to clear our founder from that charge.

In the language of the times, Messrs. Evans, Lancey, and
subsequently J.P. Fawkner, were squatters. That term is
somewhat singular as applied to the latter, who asserts that
he founded the colony to prevent its getting into the
hands of the squatters. The term was then applied to all who
placed themselves upon public lands without license. Squatting,
then, within the limits of the territory claimed by the
Association, the Launceston party were requested to cross the
Yarra, the other side of which had not been purchased by Mr.
Batman. Believing themselves proprietors, the members of the Port
Phillip Association did not admire the way in which the others
surveyed, fenced in, and cultivated paddocks on the north side of
the river. Evidently brought to see the force of argument for a
while, the new comers did cross the Yarra, though subsequently
returning.

But the great controversy about ejection began before Mr.
Fawkner himself left Launceston, and as soon as others besides
those of Launceston contemplated intrusion upon the rights of the
Wilds. As early as September 17th, one month before Mr. Fawkner
arrived at the site of the present Melbourne, I find that letters
had arrived from Dutigalla, the new settlement, giving notice of
the arrival of Mr. Evans and Captain Lancey, and thus influencing
the decision of some members of Batman's Association; for on the
17th of September, one of the Association writes to another at a
distance upon the subject of squatterdom. From the lips of this
worthy gentleman, now gone to a better world, I learnt much of
our early history. From this letter it would appear some rough
action was contemplated. Without giving names of persons, though
Mr. Batman is not mentioned, I extract the following:—

"We have heard of Thompson's and Fawkner's parties, and we had
a meeting on the subject. ——— and
——— were for hostile measures, at once setting
on the blacks to eat them out, or drive them out even. I at once
held up my voice against such imprudence, and was supported to
the echo by ———, ——— and the
———. We in the course of the day saw young
Thompson, who assured us that there was no truth in the report of
Fawkner's people having squatted. We then considered everything
set at rest; just then comes your letter to me, confirming the
fact of an encroachment, and your sentiments so fully in
accordance with the majority. I have forwarded your letter to
——— expressing my conviction of the absolute
necessity to obtain the sentiments of the proprietors, but I have
heard of nothing being done yet. Only think, in the face of the
letters and declarations made to the Home Government, for any
sensible man, (let alone professors of brotherly love for
blackfellows,) to attempt such a line of conduct as that
proposed!! Your prediction would, as a matter of course, have
been fully realised, and bloodshed and murder ushered in the
dawn."

The gentleman to whom the letter was addressed may be seen to
be Mr. Wedge. That gentleman afterwards heard some terrible news
of war being declared against the poor squatters. The
friendly interposition of some parties gave the threat a
Batmanite direction. This led to a correspondence between Mr.
Wedge and Mr. Batman. On the 13th of October, the former writes
thus from Launceston:—

"DEAR BATMAN,—I have remained in town in
the hope of seeing you this morning. I have just learnt that
there is no probability of your being here till the afternoon. As
it is inconvenient for me to wait longer, I think it only fair
towards you to state candidly the course I shall adopt. The line
of proceeding that you have chalked out in reference to the
occupation, by Messrs. Fawkner and Co., of a portion of the land
ceded to us by the native chiefs, is so contrary to my ideas on
the subject that I shall protest against it, a copy of which I
enclose. However, to obviate the consequences likely to result
from the difference of opinions, add the dictatorial attitude
assumed by some of the parties, which I never could submit to, I
will offer my share for sale to the proprietors generally, or to
any of them individually, who may choose to purchase it." He,
however, submits another proposition—that a division of the
land be made, giving Batman the first choice. Mr. Wedge enclosed
the following protest to the members of the
Association:—

"GENTLEMEN,—Having learnt from Mr. Batman
since my return from New Holland that he is on the point of
proceeding to Port Phillip, with the intention of carrying into
effect the recommendation of ———, namely, to
remove Mr. Fawkner and those connected with him, through the
instrumentality of the natives, notwithstanding such a line of
proceeding will be contrary to the general voice of the gentlemen
who were present at the meeting when ——— made
the proposition. I, therefore, take the earliest opportunity of
communicating my dissent from taking such steps. To follow it,
will lead to the most disastrous results, not only militating
against the probability of the success of the enterprise, which
at the present moment assumes so promising an aspect, but it will
assuredly lead to bloodshed and murder, which, if once commenced,
there is no foreseeing its termination. It will at once open the
eyes of the natives, and teach them the power they possess; and,
knowing that power, they will not fail to use it against us in
common with others whenever the impulse of their feelings may
prompt them to do so. Suspicion will be infused into the minds of
the natives as to the friendly intentions of the whites in
general towards them, which will counteract the happy results
that have been the consequences up to the present moment of the
friendly intercourse which was fortunately effected by Mr. Batman
in June last. For the foregoing reasons I solemnly protest
against the measures about to be carried into effect."

This noble protest exhibits the character of the man, and is
worthy to be placed in the archives of our colonial history. It
was written a week before the arrival of Mr. Fawkner at
the new settlement.

Mr. Batman answers the letter on the same day. It is so candid
and characteristic an epistle, that I copy the whole from the
original letter now before me:—

"Launceston, 13th October, 1835.

"Dear Wedge,—I received your
letter, on my arrival here, which did not a little
astonish me, particularly your protest. In the first place
you are in error in stating that ——— and
——— recommended me to remove Fawkner by
force. They have never hinted such a thing to me; in
short, I received a letter to-night from ———,
requesting to know howl intended to act towards the
squatters, and that a great deal would depend as to our
success in the treatment of them. I have never heard of a meeting
of the gents in Hobart Town, and ———
proposing that I should use force. Your protest is the first I
have heard of it. I do not, neither did I, intend to use violence
to remove Fawkner, as I am convinced there are many ways
to get rid of him without that. I should think a long time before
I would cause the natives to use anything like violence
towards any whites, as I fully agree with you as to the
consequences that might occur hereafter towards ourselves. I have
not the least doubt but that Fawkner will see the necessity of
crossing the River, as we shall overrun the land at once
with stock. I am half inclined to think that you have heard some
strange tales since your arrival. I am sorry to think you should
wish to leave us. If I can, I will ride out and see you before I
leave. But write me.

"Yours faithfully,

"John Batman."

He then returns to the matter in a couple of
postscripts:—

"I cannot help thinking, and reading your Protest, you are
surely wrong in everything. Surely, I would not do anything to
thwart our prosperity with the Government."

"J.B."

"You must have mistaken the thing altogether. I will see you,
if possible, before I leave."

It was after this memorable correspondence that a meeting of
the Port Phillip Association took place in Hobart Town, and
instructions affecting the treatment of the natives, and of the
course to be adopted towards the invading squatters, were
delivered to Mr. John Batman. That furnished to him about the
latter subject I present to the reader:—

MEMORANDUM FOR MR. BATMAN.

"It will be expedient to show Mr. Fawkner the chart, and also
the description in the grant from the natives to him, in order to
satisfy him that the land occupied by his people belongs to the
Association; to offer him every assistance through the natives in
procuring other land for him, and also in removing his goods,
&c.; and also in the erection of other buildings, and in
cultivating even to a larger extent than done by them, to protect
their present crops, gardens, &c.

"If the parties set us at defiance, it will then be expedient
to fence them off, so that they may not further trespass, and by
annoying them in that manner compel them to leave, but on no
occasion to offer them actual violence unless in
self-defence.

"It is presumed that when Mr. Batman arrives with such a
powerful force the parties will retire. They are as much
interested in conciliating the natives as we are, and it will be
desirable to have a mutual understanding for them to pay a
proportion of tribute, and also to enter into an engagement for
mutual protection."

This document is dated October 23rd, and is signed by Mr.
Gellibrand, on behalf of Messrs. Swanston, Wedge, Sams,
Cotterell, Connelly, and himself.

But the squatters proved too formidable for the Association.
Even Mr. Fawkner could not hold his own. For a time he claimed
his few acres on the Yarra; but an inroad of new-comers no more
respected Mr. Fawkner's self-asserted proprietorship in the soil
then he had the treaty-bought lands of the Association.

{Page 98}

THE FOUNDING OF MELBOURNE.

In his celebrated lecture Mr. Fawkner
thus emphatically speaks:—"The City of Melbourne I
founded."

We have then in this expressive sentence the quiet assumption
of all the credit of every one connected with the establishment
of the colony. Not only is Mr. Batman put out of court, but the
"Historical Six",—the Launceston Association, partners "at
their own cost", are also ignored. Hence have arisen the just and
indignant remonstrances of colonists earlier in the field than
himself. And well might the Cornwall Chronicle complain of
his having "too highly coloured his own performances, and forgot
to award the meed of praise to those who were the real pioneers
of the Melbourne wilderness—those who paved the way and
made the path easy for him and those who were with him."

The story of the Yarra being seen by Mr. Batman, has been
elsewhere told. Let us now see what Mr. Fawkner had to do with
the Foundation of Melbourne. Can it be that an historical myth
has arisen in relation to our colony, and that within the period
of so many living around us? If 60, we can more readily
understand traditional lore, and the ease with which fables have
grown into acknowledged truths. Again and again has the historian
pointed out remarkable statements, fully credited by the
inhabitants of a place, in connection with their own individual
neighbourhood, and relating to a time within fifty years of the
day, which were proved afterwards to be utterly baseless in fact.
In a country without written records this could be imagined; and
in one with few or insignificant ones, such a social condition
may be possible.

When Mr. Fawkner publicly called himself "The Founder of
Melbourne", we may be sure that he believed it true in a certain
sense. Ten years ago, with less information than I now possess, I
was willing to allow that phrase in my work on "The Discovery and
Settlement of Port Phillip." Let the question be re-opened.

He who causes an act to be performed by his avowed agents or
creatures is esteemed the author of the same, and receives the
honour or shame accordingly. The instigator of a murder, and the
indirect promoters of a worthy deed, are thus together judged.
Queen Dido was the founder of Carthage directly, as she led the
party. William Penn founded Pennsylvania, in signing the treaty,
paying the Indians, and introducing the immigrants. Mr. Angas
indirectly founded the colony of South Australia, when he
advanced to the South Australian company the twenty thousand
pounds demanded by the English Government as an earnest of their
intentions, but he did not proceed to Adelaide till many years
after. Captain Flinders indirectly caused the first settlement of
Port Phillip, and the real establishment of Van Diemen's Land, by
his reports of the bay and of the Derwent. In some minor sense,
then, only could Mr. Fawkner regard himself as the founder of
Melbourne.

Mr. Henty and his sons were more directly the founders of
Portland than any can be called the founder of Melbourne. Mr.
Fawkner had certainly the most to do with the Enterprise
party, and was unmistakably the leading spirit of the
soi-disant partnership; though, as the company came to the
Yarra without his knowledge, he could only in a very indirect
manner be styled the founder of Melbourne. Mr. Evans, who ordered
the party from Western Port, and who built the first hut on the
site of the present capital, may be more correctly than the other
termed the founder. But had not Batman been before, and sounded
the praises of the country, calling forth flocks of men as well
as sheep, and so exciting the interest of the place as to get a
large population, the Yarra banks might have had the feeble
Launceston party, and never reached the importance of the whaling
settlement of Portland Bay, or the cattle haunt of Twofold Bay.
It was John Batman's report that, according to the Rev. Dr. Lang,
turned the heads of half the colony of Van Diemen's Land. It
almost immediately lowered the price of land throughout the
island nearly fifty per cent, for the general desire it induced
to be off to the El Dorado. It was this that poured men and
wealth into Melbourne. Not a word has Dr. Lang, the historian of
Port Phillip, to say of Mr. Fawkner's part in the matter, and not
a word is devoted to him by Mr. Flannigan, the historian of New
South Wales. "The Hobart Town Almanack" for 1836, in its account
of the settlement, never alludes to him. The Rev. J.T. Wood's
exploration admits that "the next settlement (after Mr. Batman's)
of Port Phillip, was by Mr. Fawkner." The old authorities, like
the old colonists, make Batman the virtual founder of Melbourne.
Even Mr. Melville, in his Australasian, though mixing so
intimately with the parties of the period, in awarding the praise
of settlement to Mr. Batman, is perfectly silent about the
labours of Mr. Fawkner. Mr. Westgarth, in his early work, gives
Mr. Fawkner's account as he obtained it directly from him, but is
more reticent afterwards. Judge Thierry, in his "Reminiscences of
New South Wales", can talk of Batman, but knows nothing of his
rival. Mr. Haydon, who wrote in 1846, is equally ignorant of his
claims. The Launceston papers of 1835 spoke of the Launceston
party as the "second settlement" after Mr. Batman's. Mr. Batman
had remarked its suitability for a village five months before Mr.
Fawkner came; and although some of the Launceston people were
seated first by the Yarra, some of the Batmanite Association were
also established there before the arrival of the reputed founder.
In fact, Mr. Howitt, in his "History of Australian Exploration",
thus introduces that well-known person as "one John Fawkner,
squatting near Mr. Batman's hut." Old Captain Robson says, they
were "intending to make the settlement where Melbourne now is as
soon as Batman could get more persons there." Anyhow, the
original inhabitants of Melbourne were Messrs. Lancey, Evans, and
Jackson.

There ia one striking indirect evidence of Mr. Batman's
intentions about a "village" on the site of Melbourne, in
addition to his own general remark, and the strong assertions of
Captain Robson. This proof of intention is contained in a letter
written for the Cornwall Chronicle of June 13, 1835, five
months before Mr. Fawkner saw the heads of Port Phillip. Though
evidently a sort of jeu d'esprit, it bears, singularly
upon our subject. After joking about the Sydney native, Pigeon,
being in charge of the land, the writer adds—"The site of a
township has been marked off, to be called Batmania, at the Head
of Port Phillip, well supplied with a running stream of fresh
water."

What can this mean? It refers to Hobson's Bay, the head of
Port Phillip Bay, and to the River Yarra Yarra. Whence came the
rumour of a township there? Why, from John Batman himself, who,
though not a great writer, had spoken of its suitability for a
village in his journal, and without doubt, as I hear from others,
had fully expressed his intention of forming a settlement there.
Mr. Batman is then the real indirect Founder Of
Melbourne.

{Page 101}

MR. FAWKNER ON THE PRIVATE CHARACTER OF HIS
COTEMPORARIES.

Slander is so grateful to the palate of
humanity that it is uttered more often, let us hope, from the
desire of pleasing, or the excitation of the marvellous, than for
the injury of others' fame, or the gratification of spleen and
revenge. When attending Mr. Fawkner's lectures, I saw the
giggling at his broad allusions to the moral weaknesses of his
cotemporaries, and tried to believe that he was only indulging
his love of the ridiculous. The more fastidious might regret that
mere lads and lasses should be favoured with the spicy tales of
governors and chaplains appropriating to themselves the wives of
others; nor would old colonists rejoice to hear the private
character of John Batman held up to public contempt. And if, too,
the intemperance of the Batmans is to be held forth for public
condemnation, should it be done by Mr. Fawkner, who sold them the
liquor, and whose primitive public-house absorbed their gains and
demoralised their characters? Mr. Fawkner by no means enshrouds
himself in snowy robes while defiling the garments of others. His
unfortunate propensity to record the past deformities of his
rivals provokes his foes to retaliate upon himself. That none has
done so in public for so many years, is a noble evidence of
forbearance and the exercise of wholesome virtue. Many are still
alive who know Mr. Fawkner's early career in Van Diemen's Land.
The historian, who is obliged occasionally to fish in dirty
water, and who in the pursuit of information is led into strange
company, to hear strange things, becomes acquainted with many
facts of personal adventure which he blushes to record.

Mr. Fawkner, who owes so much to the energy and intrepidity of
Mr. Batman, should be the last to scandalise him. At least he is
not the man who should envy another, especially the dead, some
meed of praise for labours done. He lives in luxurious ease. He
enjoys a large share of popular applause. He holds a
distinguished position in the councils of his country. He has his
good things. His compeer, the dashing Batman, has lain in his
grave, at the Old Cemetery, for seven-and-twenty years. His
property, accumulated by industry in the midst of perils, has
passed, through a defective will, into the hands of strangers.
His only son, a tender boy, perished in the Yarra. His last
surviving daughter in Victoria, died two years ago. His
grandsons, excellent lads, are struggling into life. His
name, which after the departure of wealth and children,
might have been respected in the land he founded, has either been
unheeded and forgotten, or held up to reproach and shame by his
rival.

This surely appeals to our sympathy as men, to our hearts as
Christians. We deny not praise to Mr. Fawkner. We credit him with
persevering energy, indomitable will, and zeal for public
service. We thank him for aiding the pulpit and the press. We
respect him for sacrifice of time and money, in the spread of
literature, and the support of learning. We honour him for
self-elevation and self-instruction. We delight to exhibit him as
a rare example of sobriety, intelligence, and usefulness, rising
from the dark depths of social corruption. But we do feel pained
at his uncharitable bitterness towards the dead, and are shocked
at that unforgiving and malignant hate in one approaching
fourscore years. Surely the dark days of his rival, and his
rival's race, might have satisfied his ire and stayed
revenge.

{Page 103}

CONCLUSION.

The purpose for which this work was
written was to vindicate the character of John Batman, and to
present his claims upon our gratitude.

That he was the real founder of the colony may have been seen
from the following considerations: He sought a settlement in
1827; he organised the first public association for its
settlement; he explored the country to make known its
capabilities; he first made public the news of the fine land; he
acknowledged the rights of the natives, to secure a firm footing
for settlers; he brought the country under official notice; his
published reports were the immediate cause of the rush of
colonists to these shores.

Where is the public recognition of his services? Where is the
monument erected to his honour? Alas! the land he loved so well
has known him not. The people, so enriched by his enterprise, so
blessed by his toil, have no thought of his fame, no reward for
his work. His neglected grave is but a type of his unremembered
days. Even Batman's Hill, the memorial of his ancient encampment,
has been levelled; and the sheoaks upon that grassy mound no
longer sigh in the breeze a dirge for the hero of
exploration.

A little poem written many years ago, though I know not by
whom, rudely but affectingly gives a

MONODY ON BATMAN'S HILL.

There is a solemn music in the breeze,
So sadly sighing over Batman's Hill;

There is a desolate language from the trees
Upon its mount where plaintive murmurs thrill.

Have ye not heard? Up, then, and haste ye
there,
It is no visionary music reigns;

It is a long low sound of deep despair,
A spirit's solemn, melancholy strains.

Hark! They have ceased, and through the tendrils
green,
A hollow, mourning voice the sound prolongs;

Tis Batman's spirit hovering o'er the scene,
Weeps o'er his own and o'er his children's wrongs.

Land once my own", the grieving spirit cries,
"Purchased by right, and not by deeds of blood;

Not wrung by widows' tears, nor orphans'
cries,
Not washed by hands in native gore untied.

Say, when I stood upon thy beauteous shore,
All, all the rightful owners stood around,

When each dark-featured chief in freedom
swore,
His spoils my gifts, and these my spots of ground,—

Were they not mine? Could any grasping power
Seize on my right, the rich gift tear away,

Who never knew of it until the hour
When first I showed their laggard steps the way?

Talk not of Ferdinand, nor of the tyrant
Spain,
And mocking, seem to pity the hard fate

Which made the great Columbus wear a chain,
As if your spirits were not more ingrate!

"Where are the herds that on this hillock
grazed?
Where are the numerous flocks I left behind?

Where are the houses which my efforts raised?
Where are my fortunes? Scattered to the wind;

Do I not hear their lonely, friendless sighs?
Do I not see their tears unheeded fall?

"Australia Felix! if thou think'st that name
Shall nothing be but a fool's scorn to thee,

Wash from thy hands this lasting, burning
shame,
And give my children what they took from me."

Will the colonists of Victoria, generous above all nations,
revise to do something to perpetuate the memory of Batman? Will
they, at least, decline to feel a sympathy for his two remaining
grandsons, still with us? Their mother, the favourite daughter of
John Batman, has gone to her rest. More than once has she told
me, when in her dying state, that her hope in death would be that
something would be done for her boys in justice to Batman.

Without complaining that a lady who introduced immigrants had
been rewarded with thousands of public money, and that distant
friends of deceased explorers were so liberally favoured, it must
be regretted that the descendants of the founder of the colony
have been utterly forgotten, and that no stone of honour marks
his grave.

The profits of this publication, devoted to the lads, can be
but small; but surely old colonists will not, after this tale of
the past, be slow to remember those who bear the blood of
Batman.